Soon after the receipt of the letters which we had the pleasure of
communicating in the foregoing chapter, the following was received from
Mrs. Pringle, and the intelligence it contains is so interesting and
important, that we hasten to lay it before our readers:--
LETTER VI
_Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_
LONDON.
MY DEAR MISS MALLY--You must not expect no particulars from me of our
journey; but as Rachel is writing all the calamities that befell us to
Bell Tod, you will, no doubt, hear of them. But all is nothing to my
losses. I bought from the first hand, Mr. Treddles the manufacturer, two
pieces of muslin, at Glasgow, such a thing not being to be had on any
reasonable terms here, where they get all their fine muslins from Glasgow
and Paisley; and in the same bocks with them I packit a small crock of
our ain excellent poudered butter, with a delap cheese, for I was told
that such commodities are not to be had genuine in London. I likewise
had in it a pot of marmlet, which Miss Jenny Macbride gave me at Glasgow,
assuring me that it was not only dentice, but a curiosity among the
English, and my best new bumbeseen goun in peper. Howsomever, in the
nailing of the bocks, which I did carefully with my oun hands, one of the
nails gaed in ajee, and broke the pot of marmlet, which, by the jolting
of the ship, ruined the muslin, rottened the peper round the goun, which
the shivers cut into more than twenty great holes. Over and above all,
the crock with the butter was, no one can tell how, crackit, and the
pickle lecking out, and mixing with the seerip of the marmlet, spoilt the
cheese. In short, at the object I beheld, when the bocks was opened, I
could have ta'en to the greeting; but I behaved with more composity on
the occasion, than the Doctor thought it was in the power of nature to
do. Howsomever, till I get a new goun and other things, I am obliged to
be a prisoner; and as the Doctor does not like to go to the
counting-house of the agents without me, I know not what is yet to be the
consequence of our journey. But it would need to be something; for we
pay four guineas and a half a week for our dry lodgings, which is at a
degree more than the Doctor's whole stipend. As yet, for the cause of
these misfortunes, I can give you no account of London; but there is, as
everybody kens, little thrift in their housekeeping. We just buy our tea
by the quarter a pound, and our loaf sugar, broken in a peper bag, by the
pound, which would be a disgrace to a decent family in Scotland; and when
we order dinner, we get no more than just serves, so that we have no cold
meat if a stranger were coming by chance, which makes an unco bare house.
The servan lasses I cannot abide; they dress better at their wark than
ever I did on an ordinaire week-day at the manse; and this very morning I
saw madam, the kitchen lass, mounted on a pair of pattens, washing the
plain stenes before the door; na, for that matter, a bare foot is not to
be seen within the four walls of London, at the least I have na seen no
such thing.
In the way of marketing, things are very good here, and considering, not
dear; but all is sold by the licht weight, only the fish are awful; half
a guinea for a cod's head, and no bigger than the drouds the cadgers
bring from Ayr, at a shilling and eighteenpence apiece.
Tell Miss Nanny Eydent that I have seen none of the fashions as yet; but
we are going to the burial of the auld king next week, and I'll write her
a particular account how the leddies are dressed; but everybody is in
deep mourning. Howsomever I have seen but little, and that only in a
manner from the window; but I could not miss the opportunity of a frank
that Andrew has got, and as he's waiting for the pen, you must excuse
haste. From your sincere friend,
JANET PRINGLE.
LETTER VII
_Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_
LONDON.
MY DEAR FRIEND--It will give you pleasure to hear that my father is
likely to get his business speedily settled without any equivocation; and
that all those prudential considerations which brought us to London were
but the phantasms of our own inexperience. I use the plural, for I
really share in the shame of having called in question the high character
of the agents: it ought to have been warrantry enough that everything
would be fairly adjusted. But I must give you some account of what has
taken place, to illustrate our provincialism, and to give you some idea
of the way of doing business in London.
After having recovered from the effects, and repaired some of the
accidents of our voyage, we yesterday morning sallied forth, the Doctor,
my mother, and your humble servant, in a hackney coach, to Broad Street,
where the agents have their counting-house, and were ushered into a room
among other legatees or clients, waiting for an audience of Mr. Argent,
the principal of the house.
I know not how it is, that the little personal peculiarities, so amusing
to strangers, should be painful when we see them in those whom we love
and esteem; but I own to you, that there was a something in the demeanour
of the old folks on this occasion, that would have been exceedingly
diverting to me, had my filial reverence been less sincere for them.
The establishment of Messrs. Argent and Company is of vast extent, and
has in it something even of a public magnitude; the number of the clerks,
the assiduity of all, and the order that obviously prevails throughout,
give at the first sight, an impression that bespeaks respect for the
stability and integrity of the concern. When we had been seated about
ten minutes, and my father's name taken to Mr. Argent, an answer was
brought, that he would see us as soon as possible; but we were obliged to
wait at least half an hour more. Upon our being at last admitted, Mr.
Argent received us standing, and in an easy gentlemanly manner said to my
father, "You are the residuary legatee of the late Colonel Armour. I am
sorry that you did not apprise me of this visit, that I might have been
prepared to give the information you naturally desire; but if you will
call here to-morrow at 12 o'clock, I shall then be able to satisfy you on
the subject. Your lady, I presume?" he added, turning to my mother;
"Mrs. Argent will have the honour of waiting on you; may I therefore beg
the favour of your address?" Fortunately I was provided with cards, and
having given him one, we found ourselves constrained, as it were, to take
our leave. The whole interview did not last two minutes, and I never was
less satisfied with myself. The Doctor and my mother were in the
greatest anguish; and when we were again seated in the coach, loudly
expressed their apprehensions. They were convinced that some stratagem
was meditated; they feared that their journey to London would prove as
little satisfactory as that of the Wrongheads, and that they had been
throwing away good money in building castles in the air.
It had been previously arranged, that we were to return for my sister,
and afterwards visit some of the sights; but the clouded visages of her
father and mother darkened the very spirit of Rachel, and she largely
shared in their fears. This, however, was not the gravest part of the
business; for, instead of going to St. Paul's and the Tower, as we had
intended, my mother declared, that not one farthing would they spend more
till they were satisfied that the expenses already incurred were likely
to be reimbursed; and a Chancery suit, with all the horrors of wig and
gown, floated in spectral haziness before their imagination.
We sat down to a frugal meal, and although the remainder of a bottle of
wine, saved from the preceding day, hardly afforded a glass apiece, the
Doctor absolutely prohibited me from opening another.
This morning, faithful to the hour, we were again in Broad Street, with
hearts knit up into the most peremptory courage; and, on being announced,
were immediately admitted to Mr. Argent. He received us with the same
ease as in the first interview, and, after requesting us to be seated
(which, by the way, he did not do yesterday, a circumstance that was
ominously remarked), he began to talk on indifferent matters. I could
see that a question, big with law and fortune, was gathering in the
breasts both of the Doctor and my mother, and that they were in a state
far from that of the blessed. But one of the clerks, before they had
time to express their indignant suspicions, entered with a paper, and Mr.
Argent, having glanced it over, said to the Doctor--"I congratulate you,
sir, on the amount of the colonel's fortune. I was not indeed aware
before that he had died so rich. He has left about 120,000 pounds;
seventy-five thousand of which is in the five per cents; the remainder in
India bonds and other securities. The legacies appear to be
inconsiderable, so that the residue to you, after paying them and the
expenses of Doctors' Commons, will exceed a hundred thousand pounds."
My father turned his eyes upwards in thankfulness. "But," continued Mr.
Argent, "before the property can be transferred, it will be necessary for
you to provide about four thousand pounds to pay the duty and other
requisite expenses." This was a thunderclap. "Where can I get such a
sum?" exclaimed my father, in a tone of pathetic simplicity. Mr. Argent
smiled and said, "We shall manage that for you"; and having in the same
moment pulled a bell, a fine young man entered, whom he introduced to us
as his son, and desired him to explain what steps it was necessary for
the Doctor to take. We accordingly followed Mr. Charles Argent to his
own room.
Thus, in less time than I have been in writing it, were we put in
possession of all the information we required, and found those whom we
feared might be interested to withhold the settlement, alert and prompt
to assist us.
Mr. Charles Argent is naturally more familiar than his father. He has a
little dash of pleasantry in his manner, with a shrewd good-humoured
fashionable air, that renders him soon an agreeable acquaintance. He
entered with singular felicity at once into the character of the Doctor
and my mother, and waggishly drolled, as if he did not understand them,
in order, I could perceive, to draw out the simplicity of their
apprehensions. He quite won the old lady's economical heart, by offering
to frank her letters, for he is in Parliament. "You have probably," said
he slyly, "friends in the country, to whom you may be desirous of
communicating the result of your journey to London; send your letters to
me, and I will forward them, and any that you expect may also come under
cover to my address, for postage is very expensive."
As we were taking our leave, after being fully instructed in all the
preliminary steps to be taken before the transfers of the funded property
can be made, he asked me, in a friendly manner, to dine with him this
evening, and I never accepted an invitation with more pleasure. I
consider his acquaintance a most agreeable acquisition, and not one of
the least of those advantages which this new opulence has put it in my
power to attain. The incidents, indeed, of this day, have been all
highly gratifying, and the new and brighter phase in which I have seen
the mercantile character, as it is connected with the greatness and glory
of my country--is in itself equivalent to an accession of useful
knowledge. I can no longer wonder at the vast power which the British
Government wielded during the late war, when I reflect that the method
and promptitude of the house of Messrs. Argent and Company is common to
all the great commercial concerns from which the statesmen derived, as
from so many reservoirs, those immense pecuniary supplies, which enabled
them to beggar all the resources of a political despotism, the most
unbounded, both in power and principle, of any tyranny that ever existed
so long.--Yours, etc.,
ANDREW PRINGLE.