1831.J 



Domestic find Foreign. 



little connected, tells the story of his 

 life, that is of his publications, for almost 

 all are spoken of more or less. Many of 

 the letters are from men of rank in 

 society, if not in literature, such as Lord 

 Buchan and Horace Walpole, but more 

 from men of inferior rank in all re- 

 spects. Pinkerton was, as we have said, 

 of an irritable temperament, and many 

 of the letters are connected with his 

 quarrels and misunderstandings. A re- 

 ply of Godwin's, so far back as 1709, on 

 some supposed offence, is admirable. 

 Every body seemed to Pinkerton to use 

 him ill, and nobody will wonder who 

 conceives his bilious portrait. He was 

 a very little and very thin old man, with 

 a very small, sharp, yellow face, thickly 

 pitted with the small pox, and decked 

 with a pair oj:' green spectacles. 



While publishing engravings of dis- 

 tinguished Scotchmen, very miserable 

 ones by the way, he wrote Sir John Sin- 

 clair a dissertation on the Scotch phi- 

 libeg. According to Pinkerton the old 

 loose Braccse, covering leg and thigh, 

 were followed by tight hose, which hose 

 were covered at last, for the sake of 

 decency, by the haut de chausses (or top of 

 hose). At first this, which was very short 

 and loose as a philibeg, was lengthened 

 by degrees, till Henry I V. of France 

 wore it down to within three or four 

 inches of the knee, and gathered like a 

 petticoat tucked. Louis XII I. appeared 

 with what are now called breeches. 

 The Germans call breeches hosen, a term 

 which we confine to stockings. But the 

 haut de chausses has become among the 

 Highlanders most indecent, because they 

 do not wear, as they ought, long hose 

 under the philibeg. " It is not only 

 grossly indecent," adds Pinkerton, in his 

 usual way, " but filthy, as it admits dust 

 to the skin, and emits the foetor of 

 perspiration ; is absurd, because while 

 the breast, &c. are twice covered by 

 vest and plaid, the parts concealed by 

 all other nations are but loosely covered ; 

 is effeminate, being mostly a short petti- 

 Coat, an article of female dress ; is beg- 

 garly, because its shortness, and the 

 shortness of the stockings, joined with 

 the naked knees, impress an unconquer- 

 able idea of poverty and nakedness." 

 ^ In reply to this antiquarianism and 

 tirade, Sir John thinks that haut de 

 chausses means trowsers, and not the 

 philibeg; "Indeed," he continues, "it 

 is well known that the philibeg was in- 

 vented by an Englishman in Lochabar, 

 about sixty years ago, who natu- 

 rally thought his workmen would be 

 more active in that light petticoat than 

 in the belted plaid; and that it was 

 more decent to wear it than to have no 

 clothing at all, which was the case with 

 some of those employed by him in cut- 

 ting down the woods in Lochabar." 



Did not Sir John see the absurdity of 

 naked men in the Highlands of Scot- 

 land ? 



Memoirs of the War in Greece, by Mr. 

 Millingen. Mr. Millingen, in 1823, had 

 just terminated his professional studies, 

 when the Greek committee were beating 

 up for medical recruits; and seizing 

 the opportunity for active employment, 

 he forthwith enrolled his name in the 

 lists of candidates. He was well recom- 

 mended, and his services of course were 

 promptly accepted. At Cephalonia, he 

 was introduced to Lord Byron, and at 

 Missolonghi, his recommendation ob- 

 tained him an appointment in the Greek 

 service. He was, moreover, consulted 

 by him in his last illness conflicted 

 with Bruno as to his medical treatment, 

 and was present at his death, and the 

 post-mortem examination. Some time 

 ago, in the Westminster Review, it 

 seems, Bruno threw the blame of im- 

 proper treatment upon Millingen, while 

 in fact, as Millingen in his defence as- 

 serts, Bruno, as chief physician, had 

 every thing his own way. Millingen's 

 statement is this : Lord Byron liad a 

 horror of bleeding, and thought, as Dr. 

 Reid said or wrote, the lancet had killed 

 more than the sword ; he had besides 

 promised his mother never to be blood- 

 ed, and in short peremptorily resisted 

 Bruno's urgency. Getting alarmed, 

 however, as he grew worse, he consult- 

 ed Millingen. Millingen was equally 

 earnest for bleeding, and finally worried 

 him into compliance. The operation, 

 apparently too long delayed, was not at- 

 tended with the success anticipated by 

 both Bruno and Millingen ; but Millin- 

 gen was for persevering. In his opinion, 

 antiphlogistic remedies alone had any 

 chance. Bruno insisted upon antispas- 

 modics, and actually administered Vale- 

 rian, with ether, &c. The consequence 

 was convulsions, or at least convulsions 

 immediately followed, and in spite of all 

 remonstrance, on the part of Millingen, 

 a second dose was given, and the patient 

 was soon gone. 



After Lord Byron's death, Mr. Mil- 

 lingen continued in the Greek service 

 till the capture of Navarino. Unlucki- 

 ly he was in the town, and thus fell 

 into the hands of Ibrahim, who having 

 just lost a physician, insisted upon his 

 taking the vacant office. No alterna- 

 tive was left him, he was in the hands 

 of a barbarian, who considered the life 

 of his prisoner at his disposal. Mr. 

 Millingen of course yielded, and in 

 spite of all the interest exerted in his 

 favour by friends, he was not able to 

 escape the fangs of his tormentor till 

 the following year. In his absence his 

 enemies every man has them were 

 busy, and maliciously charged him with 

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