1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



645 



clear intelligible style. We feel certain 

 that its merits will be appreciated -when- 

 ever it becomes known to the public, and 

 shall be glad if any notice of ours can 

 contribute to that effect. 



Chronicles of the Canongate, by the 

 Author of Waverley, fyc. 2 vols. ; 1827. 

 The Chronicles of the Canongate is a title 

 about as expressive of the contents, as that 

 of Tales of my Landlord.' One Mr. 

 Chrysal Croftanger plays the part of Jede- 

 diah Cleishbotham ; but in changing the 

 machinery, there is this advantage, that a 

 new personage gives occasion for new de- 

 tails ; and half a volume is thus happily 

 occupied in developing future plans in 

 settling preparatory matters. Mr. Croft- 

 anger was, in his youth, a Scotch Laird, of 

 considerable property, which a few years 

 of dashing scattered to the winds. A con- 

 sequent exile of twenty or thirty years 

 enabled him, in some measure, to repair 

 the waste of early extravagance, and he 

 at last returns to his native country, with 

 just sufficient to make him comfortable for 

 the rest of his mortal sojourn. Being, 

 however, a man of no profession, with some 

 remains of activity, he is miserable for 

 want of something to do, and after long 

 debating, finally resolves on a literary 

 course proposing to furnish a publica- 

 tion * which should throw some light on 

 the manners of Scotland as they were, and 

 to contrast them occasionally with such 

 as are now fashionable in the same coun- 

 try.' For this purpose, he takes up his 

 residence in the Canongate, induced by 

 some tradition of family connection with 

 the spot 5 and trusts to his own researches, 

 but mainly to the contributions of his 

 friends, for filling projected volumes. 

 Among the acquaintance on whom he pro- 

 poses to levy contributions, is an elderly 

 lady, near eighty, indeed, of extraordinary 

 vigour of intellect, whose personal recol- 

 lections extend to <l forty-five," and whose 

 hereditary treasures stretch backward to 

 another century giving her the advan- 

 tage of a cotemporary of long by-gone 

 days so much so, that you were as likely 

 to ask her for anecdotes of Mary or James, 

 as of the young Pretender. The portrait 

 of this old lady is a very agreeable one, 

 and sketched in Sir Walter's happiest and 

 most discriminating manner a well-bred 

 woman of family no stranger to foreign 

 manners retaining some of the stateliness 

 and formality of Scottish ladies of olden 

 times, but relieved by some conformity 

 with modern relaxations. Unluckily she 

 dies in the midst of the author's projects, 

 but she leaves him a bundle of written 

 communications, and from these is ex- 

 tracted the first tale called the Highland 

 Widow. 



Touring in the Highlands, the old lady 

 was shewn a poor woman sitting under an 



oak, in stern and deep melancholy, where 

 she had sat for years the object of mingled 

 terror and veneration to her neighbours. 

 She, it appears, was the widow of a High- 

 lander> of the old stamp, who thought it a 

 disgrace to want what could be taken by 

 force. He finally fell in a marauding ex- 

 cursion, and left behind him a boy, whom 

 his fond mother looked forward to as the 

 successor to his father's hazardous profes- 

 sion, and the upholder of his fame. The 

 state and condition of the country, however, 

 in the meanwhile, rapidly changed, and the 

 boy, as he grew up, discovered, though his 

 mother could not, that his father's once 

 honourable employment had lost something 

 of its dignity, and he turned a deaf ear to 

 her exhortations and remonstrances. Per- 

 severing, however, in her hopes, and perse- 

 cuting him with her taunts, he at last fled 

 from her importunities, and enlisted in a 

 regiment of Highlanders, then raising by 

 the government for America ; and obtain- 

 ing a few days furlough, he returned to take 

 leave of his mother. Like a tigress, she 

 received the intelligence ; but after the first 

 storm of passion and upbraiding was over, 

 and she had exhausted the eloquence which 

 rage and disappointment prompted, she 

 cooled ; and appearing to acquiesce in what 

 seemed irremediable, she cast about for the 

 means of preventing his return. That re- 

 turn was fixed under the penalty usually in- 

 flicted for desertion to be lashed like a 

 hound, as the mother phrased it and the 

 boy was intent upon returning to the time, 

 not only from wrath, but for conscience 

 sake his honour was pledged. On the eve 

 of the furlough's expiration, she made him 

 drink a potion, which laid him asleep two 

 whole days, and he awoke only to the 

 wretched conviction, that return was all too 

 late, and his honour lost. He refused to be 

 comforted he refused to escape; he re- 

 solved to abide the consequences ; and soon 

 came a Serjeant's guard to arrest him. He 

 stipulated for exemption from the lash the 

 Serjeant could answer for nothing the 

 youth had his firelock in his hand his 

 mother urged peril was imminent ; he 

 fired ; the Serjeant fell and his compa- 

 nions disarmed the miserable boy and he 

 suffered the fate of a deserter and a mur- 

 derer. The violence and energy of a wilful 

 woman, the author has always delighted to 

 exhibit and he never was more successful 

 than in the Highland widow. 



The second tale one of far inferior in- 

 terest and inferior execution is entitled 

 The Two Drovers. One is a Highlander, 

 the other a Yorkshireman ; business brings 

 them frequently together, and, though 

 nothing congenial exists between them, 

 mutual interests make them friends. Be- 

 fore starting with a drove for England, an 

 old spaewife, his aunt, in a fit of mountain 

 inspiration, protests against the journey, for 

 she sees blood upon his hand, and English 

 blood too and snatching his knife, refuses 



