Tam Glen having, in consequence of the exhortations of Mr. Micklewham,
and the earnest entreaties of Mr. Daff, backed by the pious
animadversions of the rigidly righteous Mr. Craig, confessed a fault, and
acknowledged an irregular marriage with Meg Milliken, their child was
admitted to church privileges. But before the day of baptism, Mr. Daff,
who thought Tam had given but sullen symptoms of penitence, said, to put
him in better humour with his fate,--"Noo, Tam, since ye hae beguiled us
of the infare, we maun mak up for't at the christening; so I'll speak to
Mr. Snodgrass to bid the Doctor's friens and acquaintance to the ploy,
that we may get as meikle amang us as will pay for the bairn's baptismal
frock."
Mr. Craig, who was present, and who never lost an opportunity of
testifying, as he said, his "discountenance of the crying iniquity,"
remonstrated with Mr. Daff on the unchristian nature of the proposal,
stigmatising it with good emphasis "as a sinful nourishing of carnality
in his day and generation." Mr. Micklewham, however, interfered, and
said, "It was a matter of weight and concernment, and therefore it
behoves you to consult Mr. Snodgrass on the fitness of the thing. For if
the thing itself is not fit and proper, it cannot expect his countenance;
and, on that account, before we reckon on his compliance with what Mr.
Daff has propounded, we should first learn whether he approves of it at
all." Whereupon the two elders and the session-clerk adjourned to the
manse, in which Mr. Snodgrass, during the absence of the incumbent, had
taken up his abode.
The heads of the previous conversation were recapitulated by Mr.
Micklewham, with as much brevity as was consistent with perspicuity; and
the matter being duly digested by Mr. Snodgrass, that orthodox young
man--as Mrs. Glibbans denominated him, on hearing him for the first
time--declared that the notion of a pay-christening was a benevolent and
kind thought: "For, is not the order to increase and multiply one of the
first commands in the Scriptures of truth?" said Mr. Snodgrass,
addressing himself to Mr. Craig. "Surely, then, when children are
brought into the world, a great law of our nature has been fulfilled, and
there is cause for rejoicing and gladness! And is it not an obligation
imposed upon all Christians, to welcome the stranger, and to feed the
hungry, and to clothe the naked; and what greater stranger can there be
than a helpless babe? Who more in need of sustenance than the infant,
that knows not the way even to its mother's bosom? And whom shall we
clothe, if we do not the wailing innocent, that the hand of Providence
places in poverty and nakedness before us, to try, as it were, the depth
of our Christian principles, and to awaken the sympathy of our humane
feelings?"
Mr. Craig replied, "It's a' very true and sound what Mr. Snodgrass has
observed; but Tam Glen's wean is neither a stranger, nor hungry, nor
naked, but a sturdy brat, that has been rinning its lane for mair than
sax weeks." "Ah!" said Mr. Snodgrass familiarly, "I fear, Mr. Craig,
ye're a Malthusian in your heart." The sanctimonious elder was
thunderstruck at the word. Of many a various shade and modification of
sectarianism he had heard, but the Malthusian heresy was new to his ears,
and awful to his conscience, and he begged Mr. Snodgrass to tell him in
what it chiefly consisted, protesting his innocence of that, and of every
erroneous doctrine.
Mr. Snodgrass happened to regard the opinions of Malthus on Population as
equally contrary to religion and nature, and not at all founded in truth.
"It is evident, that the reproductive principle in the earth and
vegetables, and all things and animals which constitute the means of
subsistence, is much more vigorous than in man. It may be therefore
affirmed, that the multiplication of the means of subsistence is an
effect of the multiplication of population, for the one is augmented in
quantity, by the skill and care of the other," said Mr. Snodgrass,
seizing with avidity this opportunity of stating what he thought on the
subject, although his auditors were but the session-clerk, and two elders
of a country parish. We cannot pursue the train of his argument, but we
should do injustice to the philosophy of Malthus, if we suppressed the
observation which Mr. Daff made at the conclusion. "Gude safe's!" said
the good-natured elder, "if it's true that we breed faster than the Lord
provides for us, we maun drown the poor folks' weans like kittlings."
"Na, na!" exclaimed Mr. Craig, "ye're a' out, neighbour; I see now the
utility of church-censures." "True!" said Mr. Micklewham; "and the
ordination of the stool of repentance, the horrors of which, in the
opinion of the fifteen Lords at Edinburgh, palliated child-murder, is
doubtless a Malthusian institution." But Mr. Snodgrass put an end to the
controversy, by fixing a day for the christening, and telling he would do
his best to procure a good collection, according to the benevolent
suggestion of Mr. Daff. To this cause we are indebted for the next
series of the Pringle correspondence; for, on the day appointed, Miss
Mally Glencairn, Miss Isabella Tod, Mrs. Glibbans and her daughter Becky,
with Miss Nanny Eydent, together with other friends of the minister's
family, dined at the manse, and the conversation being chiefly about the
concerns of the family, the letters were produced and read.
LETTER XII
_Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_
WINDSOR, CASTLE-INN.
MY DEAR FRIEND--I have all my life been strangely susceptible of pleasing
impressions from public spectacles where great crowds are assembled.
This, perhaps, you will say, is but another way of confessing, that, like
the common vulgar, I am fond of sights and shows. It may be so, but it
is not from the pageants that I derive my enjoyment. A multitude, in
fact, is to me as it were a strain of music, which, with an irresistible
and magical influence, calls up from the unknown abyss of the feelings
new combinations of fancy, which, though vague and obscure, as those
nebulae of light that astronomers have supposed to be the rudiments of
unformed stars, afterwards become distinct and brilliant acquisitions.
In a crowd, I am like the somnambulist in the highest degree of the
luminous crisis, when it is said a new world is unfolded to his
contemplation, wherein all things have an intimate affinity with the
state of man, and yet bear no resemblance to the objects that address
themselves to his corporeal faculties. This delightful experience, as it
may be called, I have enjoyed this evening, to an exquisite degree, at
the funeral of the king; but, although the whole succession of incidents
is indelibly imprinted on my recollection, I am still so much affected by
the emotion excited, as to be incapable of conveying to you any
intelligible description of what I saw. It was indeed a scene witnessed
through the medium of the feelings, and the effect partakes of the nature
of a dream.
I was within the walls of an ancient castle,
"So old as if they had for ever stood,
So strong as if they would for ever stand,"
and it was almost midnight. The towers, like the vast spectres of
departed ages, raised their embattled heads to the skies, monumental
witnesses of the strength and antiquity of a great monarchy. A
prodigious multitude filled the courts of that venerable edifice,
surrounding on all sides a dark embossed structure, the sarcophagus, as
it seemed to me at the moment, of the heroism of chivalry.
"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream," and I beheld the scene
suddenly illuminated, and the blaze of torches, the glimmering of arms,
and warriors and horses, while a mosaic of human faces covered like a
pavement the courts. A deep low under sound pealed from a distance; in
the same moment, a trumpet answered with a single mournful note from the
stateliest and darkest portion of the fabric, and it was whispered in
every ear, "It is coming." Then an awful cadence of solemn music, that
affected the heart like silence, was heard at intervals, and a numerous
retinue of grave and venerable men,
"The fathers of their time,
Those mighty master spirits, that withstood
The fall of monarchies, and high upheld
Their country's standard, glorious in the storm,"
passed slowly before me, bearing the emblems and trophies of a king.
They were as a series of great historical events, and I beheld behind
them, following and followed, an awful and indistinct image, like the
vision of Job. It moved on, and I could not discern the form thereof,
but there were honours and heraldries, and sorrow, and silence, and I
heard the stir of a profound homage performing within the breasts of all
the witnesses. But I must not indulge myself farther on this subject. I
cannot hope to excite in you the emotions with which I was so profoundly
affected. In the visible objects of the funeral of George the Third
there was but little magnificence; all its sublimity was derived from the
trains of thought and currents of feeling, which the sight of so many
illustrious characters, surrounded by circumstances associated with the
greatness and antiquity of the kingdom, was necessarily calculated to
call forth. In this respect, however, it was perhaps the sublimest
spectacle ever witnessed in this island; and I am sure, that I cannot
live so long as ever again to behold another, that will equally interest
me to the same depth and extent.--Yours,
ANDREW PRINGLE.
We should ill perform the part of faithful historians, did we omit to
record the sentiments expressed by the company on this occasion. Mrs.
Glibbans, whose knowledge of the points of orthodoxy had not their equal
in the three adjacent parishes, roundly declared, that Mr. Andrew
Pringle's letter was nothing but a peesemeal of clishmaclavers; that
there was no sense in it; and that it was just like the writer, a canary
idiot, a touch here and a touch there, without anything in the shape of
cordiality or satisfaction.
Miss Isabella Tod answered this objection with that sweetness of manner
and virgin diffidence, which so well becomes a youthful member of the
establishment, controverting the dogmas of a stoop of the Relief
persuasion, by saying, that she thought Mr. Andrew had shown a fine
sensibility. "What is sensibility without judgment," cried her
adversary, "but a thrashing in the water, and a raising of bells?
Couldna the fallow, without a' his parleyvoos, have said, that such and
such was the case, and that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh
away?--but his clouds, and his spectres, and his visions of Job!--Oh, an
he could but think like Job!--Oh, an he would but think like the patient
man!--and was obliged to claut his flesh with a bit of a broken crock, we
might have some hope of repentance unto life. But Andrew Pringle, he's a
gone dick; I never had comfort or expectation of the free-thinker, since
I heard that he was infected with the blue and yellow calamity of the
_Edinburgh Review_; in which, I am credibly told, it is set forth, that
women have nae souls, but only a gut, and a gaw, and a gizzard, like a
pigeon-dove, or a raven-crow, or any other outcast and abominated
quadruped."
Here Miss Mally Glencairn interposed her effectual mediation, and said,
"It is very true that Andrew deals in the diplomatics of obscurity; but
it's well known that he has a nerve for genius, and that, in his own way,
he kens the loan from the crown of the causeway, as well as the duck does
the midden from the adle dib." To this proverb, which we never heard
before, a learned friend, whom we consulted on the subject, has enabled
us to state, that middens were formerly of great magnitude, and often of
no less antiquity in the west of Scotland; in so much, that the Trongate
of Glasgow owes all its spacious grandeur to them. It being within the
recollection of persons yet living, that the said magnificent street was
at one time an open road, or highway, leading to the Trone, or
market-cross, with thatched houses on each side, such as may still be
seen in the pure and immaculate royal borough of Rutherglen; and that
before each house stood a luxuriant midden, by the removal of which, in
the progress of modern degeneracy, the stately architecture of Argyle
Street was formed. But not to insist at too great a length on such
topics of antiquarian lore, we shall now insert Dr. Pringle's account of
the funeral, and which, patly enough, follows our digression concerning
the middens and magnificence of Glasgow, as it contains an authentic
anecdote of a manufacturer from that city, drinking champaign at the
king's dirgie.
LETTER XIII
_The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and
Session-Clerk of Garnock_
LONDON.
DEAR SIR--I have received your letter, and it is a great pleasure to me
to hear that my people were all so much concerned at our distress in the
Leith smack; but what gave me the most contentment was the repentance of
Tam Glen. I hope, poor fellow, he will prove a good husband; but I have
my doubts; for the wife has really but a small share of common sense, and
no married man can do well unless his wife will let him. I am, however,
not overly pleased with Mr. Craig on the occasion, for he should have
considered frail human nature, and accepted of poor Tam's confession of a
fault, and allowed the bairn to be baptized without any more ado. I
think honest Mr. Daff has acted like himself, and I trust and hope there
will be a great gathering at the christening, and, that my mite may not
be wanting, you will slip in a guinea note when the dish goes round, but
in such a manner, that it may not be jealoused from whose hand it comes.
Since my last letter, we have been very thrang in the way of seeing the
curiosities of London; but I must go on regular, and tell you all, which,
I think, it is my duty to do, that you may let my people know. First,
then, we have been at Windsor Castle, to see the king lying in state,
and, afterwards, his interment; and sorry am I to say, it was not a sight
that could satisfy any godly mind on such an occasion. We went in a
coach of our own, by ourselves, and found the town of Windsor like a
cried fair. We were then directed to the Castle gate, where a terrible
crowd was gathered together; and we had not been long in that crowd, till
a pocket-picker, as I thought, cutted off the tail of my coat, with my
pocket-book in my pocket, which I never missed at the time. But it seems
the coat tail was found, and a policeman got it, and held it up on the
end of his stick, and cried, whose pocket is this? showing the book that
was therein in his hand. I was confounded to see my pocket-book there,
and could scarcely believe my own eyes; but Mrs. Pringle knew it at the
first glance, and said, "It's my gudeman's"; at the which, there was a
great shout of derision among the multitude, and we would baith have then
been glad to disown the pocket-book, but it was returned to us, I may
almost say, against our will; but the scorners, when they saw our
confusion, behaved with great civility towards us, so that we got into
the Castle-yard with no other damage than the loss of the flap of my coat
tail.
Being in the Castle-yard, we followed the crowd into another gate, and up
a stair, and saw the king lying in state, which was a very dismal
sight--and I thought of Solomon in all his glory, when I saw the coffin,
and the mutes, and the mourners; and reflecting on the long infirmity of
mind of the good old king, I said to myself, in the words of the book of
Job, 'Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die even
without wisdom!'
When we had seen the sight, we came out of the Castle, and went to an inn
to get a chack of dinner; but there was such a crowd, that no
resting-place could for a time be found for us. Gentle and semple were
there, all mingled, and no respect of persons; only there was, at a table
nigh unto ours, a fat Glasgow manufacturer, who ordered a bottle of
champaign wine, and did all he could in the drinking of it by himself, to
show that he was a man in well-doing circumstances. While he was talking
over his wine, a great peer of the realm, with a star on his breast, came
into the room, and ordered a glass of brandy and water; and I could see,
when he saw the Glasgow manufacturer drinking champaign wine on that
occasion, that he greatly marvelled thereat.
When we had taken our dinner, we went out to walk and see the town of
Windsor; but there was such a mob of coaches going and coming, and men
and horses, that we left the streets, and went to inspect the king's
policy, which is of great compass, but in a careless order, though it
costs a world of money to keep it up. Afterwards, we went back to the
inns, to get tea for Mrs. Pringle and her daughter, while Andrew Pringle,
my son, was seeing if he could get tickets to buy, to let us into the
inside of the Castle, to see the burial--but he came back without luck,
and I went out myself, being more experienced in the world, and I saw a
gentleman's servant with a ticket in his hand, and I asked him to sell it
to me, which the man did with thankfulness, for five shillings, although
the price was said to be golden guineas. But as this ticket admitted
only one person, it was hard to say what should be done with it when I
got back to my family. However, as by this time we were all very much
fatigued, I gave it to Andrew Pringle, my son, and Mrs. Pringle, and her
daughter Rachel, agreed to bide with me in the inns.
Andrew Pringle, my son, having got the ticket, left us sitting, when
shortly after in came a nobleman, high in the cabinet, as I think he must
have been, and he having politely asked leave to take his tea at our
table, because of the great throng in the house, we fell into a
conversation together, and he, understanding thereby that I was a
minister of the Church of Scotland, said he thought he could help us into
a place to see the funeral; so, after he had drank his tea, he took us
with him, and got us into the Castle-yard, where we had an excellent
place, near to the Glasgow manufacturer that drank the champaign. The
drink by this time, however, had got into that poor man's head, and he
talked so loud, and so little to the purpose, that the soldiers who were
guarding were obliged to make him hold his peace, at which he was not a
little nettled, and told the soldiers that he had himself been a soldier,
and served the king without pay, having been a volunteer officer. But
this had no more effect than to make the soldiers laugh at him, which was
not a decent thing at the interment of their master, our most gracious
Sovereign that was.
However, in this situation we saw all; and I can assure you it was a very
edifying sight; and the people demeaned themselves with so much
propriety, that there was no need for any guards at all; indeed, for that
matter, of the two, the guards, who had eaten the king's bread, were the
only ones there, saving and excepting the Glasgow manufacturer, that
manifested an irreverent spirit towards the royal obsequies. But they
are men familiar with the king of terrors on the field of battle, and it
was not to be expected that their hearts would be daunted like those of
others by a doing of a civil character.
When all was over, we returned to the inns, to get our chaise, to go back
to London that night, for beds were not to be had for love or money at
Windsor, and we reached our temporary home in Norfolk Street about four
o'clock in the morning, well satisfied with what we had seen,--but all
the meantime I had forgotten the loss of the flap of my coat, which
caused no little sport when I came to recollect what a pookit like body I
must have been, walking about in the king's policy like a peacock without
my tail. But I must conclude, for Mrs. Pringle has a letter to put in
the frank for Miss Nanny Eydent, which you will send to her by one of
your scholars, as it contains information that may be serviceable to Miss
Nanny in her business, both as a mantua-maker and a superintendent of the
genteeler sort of burials at Irvine and our vicinity. So that this is
all from your friend and pastor,
ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
"I think," said Miss Isabella Tod, as Mr. Micklewham finished the reading
of the Doctor's epistle, "that my friend Rachel might have given me some
account of the ceremony; but Captain Sabre seems to have been a much more
interesting object to her than the pride and pomp to her brother, or even
the Glasgow manufacturer to her father." In saying these words, the
young lady took the following letter from her pocket, and was on the
point of beginning to read it, when Miss Becky Glibbans exclaimed, "I had
aye my fears that Rachel was but light-headed, and I'll no be surprised
to hear more about her and the dragoon or a's done." Mr. Snodgrass
looked at Becky, as if he had been afflicted at the moment with
unpleasant ideas; and perhaps he would have rebuked the spitefulness of
her insinuations, had not her mother sharply snubbed the uncongenial
maiden, in terms at least as pungent as any which the reverend gentleman
would have employed. "I'm sure," replied Miss Becky, pertly, "I meant no
ill; but if Rachel Pringle can write about nothing but this Captain
Sabre, she might as well let it alone, and her letter canna be worth the
hearing." "Upon that," said the clergyman, "we can form a judgment when
we have heard it, and I beg that Miss Isabella may proceed,"--which she
did accordingly.
LETTER XIV
_Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_
LONDON.
MY DEAR BELL--I take up my pen with a feeling of disappointment such as I
never felt before. Yesterday was the day appointed for the funeral of
the good old king, and it was agreed that we should go to Windsor, to
pour the tribute of our tears upon the royal hearse. Captain Sabre
promised to go with us, as he is well acquainted with the town, and the
interesting objects around the Castle, so dear to chivalry, and embalmed
by the genius of Shakespeare and many a minor bard, and I promised myself
a day of unclouded felicity--but the captain was ordered to be on
duty,--and the crowd was so rude and riotous, that I had no enjoyment
whatever; but, pining with chagrin at the little respect paid by the
rabble to the virtues of the departed monarch, I would fainly have
retired into some solemn and sequestered grove, and breathed my sorrows
to the listening waste. Nor was the loss of the captain, to explain and
illuminate the different baronial circumstances around the Castle, the
only thing I had to regret in this ever-memorable excursion--my tender
and affectionate mother was so desirous to see everything in the most
particular manner, in order that she might give an account of the funeral
to Nanny Eydent, that she had no mercy either upon me or my father, but
obliged us to go with her to the most difficult and inaccessible places.
How vain was all this meritorious assiduity! for of what avail can the
ceremonies of a royal funeral be to Miss Nanny, at Irvine, where kings
never die, and where, if they did, it is not at all probable that Miss
Nanny would be employed to direct their solemn obsequies? As for my
brother, he was so entranced with his own enthusiasm, that he paid but
little attention to us, which made me the more sensible of the want we
suffered from the absence of Captain Sabre. In a word, my dear Bell,
never did I pass a more unsatisfactory day, and I wish it blotted for
ever from my remembrance. Let it therefore be consigned to the abysses
of oblivion, while I recall the more pleasing incidents that have
happened since I wrote you last.
On Sunday, according to invitation, as I told you, we dined with the
Argents--and were entertained by them in a style at once most splendid,
and on the most easy footing. I shall not attempt to describe the
consumable materials of the table, but call your attention, my dear
friend, to the intellectual portion of the entertainment, a subject much
more congenial to your delicate and refined character.
Mrs. Argent is a lady of considerable personal magnitude, of an open and
affable disposition. In this respect, indeed, she bears a striking
resemblance to her nephew, Captain Sabre, with whose relationship to her
we were unacquainted before that day. She received us as friends in whom
she felt a peculiar interest; for when she heard that my mother had got
her dress and mine from Cranbury Alley, she expressed the greatest
astonishment, and told us, that it was not at all a place where persons
of fashion could expect to be properly served. Nor can I disguise the
fact, that the flounced and gorgeous garniture of our dresses was in
shocking contrast to the amiable simplicity of hers and the fair
Arabella, her daughter, a charming girl, who, notwithstanding the
fashionable splendour in which she has been educated, displays a
delightful sprightliness of manner, that, I have some notion, has not
been altogether lost on the heart of my brother.
When we returned upstairs to the drawing-room, after dinner, Miss
Arabella took her harp, and was on the point of favouring us with a
Mozart; but her mother, recollecting that we were Presbyterians, thought
it might not be agreeable, and she desisted, which I was sinful enough to
regret; but my mother was so evidently alarmed at the idea of playing on
the harp on a Sunday night, that I suppressed my own wishes, in filial
veneration for those of that respected parent. Indeed, fortunate it was
that the music was not performed; for, when we returned home, my father
remarked with great solemnity, that such a way of passing the Lord's
night as we had passed it, would have been a great sin in Scotland.
Captain Sabre, who called on us next morning, was so delighted when he
understood that we were acquainted with his aunt, that he lamented he had
not happened to know it before, as he would, in that case, have met us
there. He is indeed very attentive, but I assure you that I feel no
particular interest about him; for although he is certainly a very
handsome young man, he is not such a genius as my brother, and has no
literary partialities. But literary accomplishments are, you know,
foreign to the military profession, and if the captain has not
distinguished himself by cutting up authors in the reviews, he has
acquired an honourable medal, by overcoming the enemies of the civilised
world at Waterloo.
To-night the playhouses open again, and we are going to the Oratorio, and
the captain goes with us, a circumstance which I am the more pleased at,
as we are strangers, and he will tell us the names of the performers. My
father made some scruple of consenting to be of the party; but when he
heard that an Oratorio was a concert of sacred music, he thought it would
be only a sinless deviation if he did, so he goes likewise. The captain,
therefore, takes an early dinner with us at five o'clock. Alas! to what
changes am I doomed,--that was the tea hour at the manse of Garnock. Oh,
when shall I revisit the primitive simplicities of my native scenes
again! But neither time nor distance, my dear Bell, can change the
affection with which I subscribe myself, ever affectionately, yours,
RACHEL PRINGLE.
At the conclusion of this letter, the countenance of Mrs. Glibbans was
evidently so darkened, that it daunted the company, like an eclipse of
the sun, when all nature is saddened. "What think you, Mr. Snodgrass,"
said that spirit-stricken lady,--"what think you of this dining on the
Lord's day,--this playing on the harp; the carnal Mozarting of that
ungodly family, with whom the corrupt human nature of our friends has
been chambering?" Mr. Snodgrass was at some loss for an answer, and
hesitated, but Miss Mally Glencairn relieved him from his embarrassment,
by remarking, that "the harp was a holy instrument," which somewhat
troubled the settled orthodoxy of Mrs. Glibbans's visage. "Had it been
an organ," said Mr. Snodgrass, dryly, "there might have been, perhaps,
more reason to doubt; but, as Miss Mally justly remarks, the harp has
been used from the days of King David in the performances of sacred
music, together with the psalter, the timbrel, the sackbut, and the
cymbal." The wrath of the polemical Deborah of the Relief-Kirk was
somewhat appeased by this explanation, and she inquired in a more
diffident tone, whether a Mozart was not a metrical paraphrase of the
song of Moses after the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea; "in
which case, I must own," she observed, "that the sin and guilt of the
thing is less grievous in the sight of HIM before whom all the actions of
men are abominations." Miss Isabella Tod, availing herself of this break
in the conversation, turned round to Miss Nanny Eydent, and begged that
she would read her letter from Mrs. Pringle. We should do injustice,
however, to honest worth and patient industry were we, in thus
introducing Miss Nanny to our readers, not to give them some account of
her lowly and virtuous character.
Miss Nanny was the eldest of three sisters, the daughters of a
shipmaster, who was lost at sea when they were very young; and his all
having perished with him, they were indeed, as their mother said, the
children of Poverty and Sorrow. By the help of a little credit, the
widow contrived, in a small shop, to eke out her days till Nanny was able
to assist her. It was the intention of the poor woman to take up a
girl's school for reading and knitting, and Nanny was destined to
instruct the pupils in that higher branch of accomplishment--the
different stitches of the sampler. But about the time that Nanny was
advancing to the requisite degree of perfection in chain-steek and
pie-holes--indeed had made some progress in the Lord's prayer between two
yew trees--tambouring was introduced at Irvine, and Nanny was sent to
acquire a competent knowledge of that classic art, honoured by the fair
hands of the beautiful Helen and the chaste and domestic Andromache. In
this she instructed her sisters; and such was the fruit of their
application and constant industry, that her mother abandoned the design
of keeping school, and continued to ply her little huxtry in more easy
circumstances. The fluctuations of trade in time taught them that it
would not be wise to trust to the loom, and accordingly Nanny was at some
pains to learn mantua-making; and it was fortunate that she did so--for
the tambouring gradually went out of fashion, and the flowering which
followed suited less the infirm constitution of poor Nanny. The making
of gowns for ordinary occasions led to the making of mournings, and the
making of mournings naturally often caused Nanny to be called in at
deaths, which, in process of time, promoted her to have the management of
burials; and in this line of business she has now a large proportion of
the genteelest in Irvine and its vicinity; and in all her various
engagements her behaviour has been as blameless and obliging as her
assiduity has been uniform; insomuch, that the numerous ladies to whom
she is known take a particular pleasure in supplying her with the newest
patterns, and earliest information, respecting the varieties and changes
of fashions; and to the influence of the same good feelings in the breast
of Mrs. Pringle, Nanny was indebted for the following letter. How far
the information which it contains may be deemed exactly suitable to the
circumstances in which Miss Nanny's lot is cast, our readers may judge
for themselves; but we are happy to state, that it has proved of no small
advantage to her: for since it has been known that she had received a
full, true, and particular account, of all manner of London fashions,
from so managing and notable a woman as the minister's wife of Garnock,
her consideration has been so augmented in the opinion of the
neighbouring gentlewomen, that she is not only consulted as to funerals,
but is often called in to assist in the decoration and arrangement of
wedding-dinners, and other occasions of sumptuous banqueting; by which
she is enabled, during the suspension of the flowering trade, to earn a
lowly but a respected livelihood.
LETTER XV
_Mrs. Pringle to Miss Nanny Eydent_, _Mantua-maker_, _Seagate Head_,
_Irvine_
LONDON.
DEAR MISS NANNY--Miss Mally Glencairn would tell you all how it happent
that I was disabled, by our misfortunes in the ship, from riting to you
konserning the London fashons as I promist; for I wantit to be
partikylor, and to say nothing but what I saw with my own eyes, that it
might be servisable to you in your bizness--so now I will begin with the
old king's burial, as you have sometimes okashon to lend a helping hand
in that way at Irvine, and nothing could be more genteeler of the kind
than a royal obsakew for a patron; but no living sole can give a distink
account of this matter, for you know the old king was the father of his
piple, and the croud was so great. Howsomever we got into our oun hired
shaze at daylight; and when we were let out at the castel yett of
Windsor, we went into the mob, and by and by we got within the castel
walls, when great was the lamentation for the purdition of shawls and
shoos, and the Doctor's coat pouch was clippit off by a pocket-picker.
We then ran to a wicket-gate, and up an old timber-stair with a rope
ravel, and then we got to a great pentit chamber called King George's
Hall: After that we were allowt to go into another room full of guns and
guards, that told us all to be silent: so then we all went like sawlies,
holding our tongues in an awful manner, into a dysmal room hung with
black cloth, and lighted with dum wax-candles in silver skonses, and men
in a row all in mulancholic posters. At length and at last we came to
the coffin; but although I was as partikylar as possoble, I could see
nothing that I would recommend. As for the interment, there was nothing
but even-down wastrie--wax-candles blowing away in the wind, and flunkies
as fou as pipers, and an unreverent mob that scarsely could demean
themselves with decency as the body was going by; only the Duke of York,
who carrit the head, had on no hat, which I think was the newest
identical thing in the affair: but really there was nothing that could be
recommended. Howsomever I understood that there was no draigie, which
was a saving; for the bread and wine for such a multitude would have been
a destruction to a lord's living: and this is the only point that the
fashon set in the king's feunoral may be follot in Irvine.
Since the burial, we have been to see the play, where the leddies were
all in deep murning; but excepting that some had black gum-floors on
their heads, I saw leetil for admiration--only that bugles, I can ashure
you, are not worn at all this season; and surely this murning must be a
vast detrimint to bizness--for where there is no verietie, there can be
but leetil to do in your line. But one thing I should not forget, and
that is, that in the vera best houses, after tea and coffee after dinner,
a cordial dram is handed about; but likewise I could observe, that the
fruit is not set on with the cheese, as in our part of the country, but
comes, after the cloth is drawn, with the wine; and no such a thing as a
punch-bowl is to be heard of within the four walls of London.
Howsomever, what I principally notised was, that the tea and coffee is
not made by the lady of the house, but out of the room, and brought in
without sugar or milk, on servors, every one helping himself, and only
plain flimsy loaf and butter is served--no such thing as shortbread,
seed-cake, bun, marmlet, or jeelly to be seen, which is an okonomical
plan, and well worthy of adaptation in ginteel families with narrow
incomes, in Irvine or elsewhere.
But when I tell you what I am now going to say, you will not be surprizt
at the great wealth in London. I paid for a bumbeseen gown, not a bit
better than the one that was made by you that the sore calamity befell,
and no so fine neither, more than three times the price; so you see, Miss
Nanny, if you were going to pouse your fortune, you could not do better
than pack up your ends and your awls and come to London. But ye're far
better at home--for this is not a town for any creditable young woman
like you, to live in by herself, and I am wearying to be back, though
it's hard to say when the Doctor will get his counts settlet. I wish
you, howsomever, to mind the patches for the bed-cover that I was going
to patch, for a licht afternoon seam, as the murning for the king will no
be so general with you, and the spring fashons will be coming on to help
my gathering--so no more at present from your friend and well-wisher,
JANET PRINGLE.