1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign, 



713 



a visit to her uncle, and the uncle is scheming 

 to marry her to Lord Manleverer, his old 

 accommodating friend a very fine and fas- 

 tidious peer ; but her growing attachment to 

 Capt, Clifford excites the jealousy of my lord, 

 and it soon becomes unsafe for Capt. Clifford 

 to remain longer in Bath. So notorious had 

 Paul by this time become, and so perilous of 

 course was his situation, that he prudently 

 resolves, the next success he meets with, to 

 abandon his profession, and enter into some 

 foreign service, in the hope too that he might 

 win a name and fortune to entitle him to claim 

 Miss Brandon's hand. As fate would have it, 

 Lord Manleverer is the person the gang next 

 plunder. His share of the spoil is amply 

 sufficient for Paul's settled purpose; and 

 the party betake themselves for the night to 

 the old cave, when the cook, who is no other 

 than the old editor of the Asinaeum, broils 

 them a steak, and the next morning betrays 

 them into the hands of some police officers. 

 Escaping from their clutches by his activity 

 and resolution, Paul hastens to London, and 

 instead of flying from the kingdom forthwith, 

 he must have an interview with Miss Bran- 

 don, just to tell her he is utterly unworthy 

 of her, and shall see her no more. Ac- 

 complishing this hazardous attempt, he must 

 needs be chivalrous enough to rescue his com- 

 panions ; and this also he accomplishes, but 

 in the act receives a shot in his side, which 

 disables him, and he is forthwith clapt up in 

 prison. Now comes on the pathos and the 

 intensity of the piece. Brandon is now a 

 judge, and to his lot it falls to try the prisoner. 

 In the course of the trial he discovers him to 

 be the son he had so long anxiously been in 

 search of; but in spite of his appalled and 

 almost crushing feelings, he goes through 

 \vith his task and pronounces sentence of 

 death upon him. The effort, however, con- 

 spiring with some previous disease, was too 

 much for him, and in a few hours after he 

 was found dead in his carriage. The rela- 

 tionship becomes known, and Miss Brandon 

 visits her cousin in the prison. His punish- 

 ment is commuted for transportation. Within 

 a few months the young lady becomes her 

 own mistress, with immense property. Paul 

 escapes; Miss B. joins him, and they fly 

 to America; where twenty years after Mr. 

 Clifford is distinguished among the first and 

 ablest of her citizens. The moral the author 

 would enforce is, Wilkes's maxim, the very 

 worst use to which you can put a man is to 

 hang him. 



Of Mr. B.'s merits it is superfluous to 

 speak; he is at the head of his class; his 

 knowledge is large, his conceptions vigorous, 

 his imagination intense, his fancy fertile, his 

 language apt and exciting, and his range of 

 subjects especially attractive and adapted to 

 the age. No man catches better the tone of 

 the day, or is more capable of speeding the 

 career of literature. 



The Wavcrky Novels. Vols. IX., X., 

 XI., and XII. Sir Walter Scott continues 

 M.M. Nrie Series VOL. IX. No. 54. 



his pleasant revellings. The leading cha- 

 racters of his tales are most of them sketches 

 from life ; and however singular the features 

 of many of them are, faithful copies it seems 

 of the originals, which either fell under his own 

 eye, or are communicated by his numerous 

 friends, his own ready tact detected at a 

 glance the presentable peculiarities. The 

 Slack Dwarf is a close copy of one David 

 Ritchie, a poor man of the hideous form and 

 features the author so graphically represents 

 him. He was brought up a brush-maker at 

 Edinburgh, and after roaming to a variety of 

 places in quest of a livelihood, finally fled 

 from the shouts and mockery excited by his 

 strange deformities, to a sequestered spot in 

 Peebleshire, where, on the moorland, with 

 his own hands he built himself a cottage, 

 and lived on the contributions bestowed by 

 the fears or the chanties of the neighbour- 

 hood. His Timonism was of the most ex- 

 asperated and enduring cast; but though 

 hating his kind, and children especially, he 

 was, if not without compensations, not with- 

 out enjoyments. He loved and felt the 

 charms of nature. He cultivated a little 

 garden sedulously, and took an evident pride 

 in exhibiting its fruits and flowers. He de- 

 lighted in contemplating the softer beauties 

 around him the soft sweep of the green 

 hill, the bubbling of a clear fountain, &c. 

 The same love of reposing scenes found a 

 corresponding indulgence in perusing Shen- 

 stone's Pastorals, and some of the descriptive 

 morsels of Milton. Sir Walter heard his 

 hoarse voice repeat Milton's description of 

 paradise, which he evidently felt, though the 

 feeling could not soften his raven-croaking. 

 Of course he was occasionally the subject of 

 prying visits. Once a lady who had known 

 him from infancy, accompanied by another 

 lady, went into his garden, and happen- 

 ing to step near some cabbages covered 

 with caterpillars, one of them smiled. His 

 savage and scowling aspect was instantly re- 

 sumed, and rushing among the cabbages, he 

 dashed them to pieces : " I hate the worms, 

 for they mock me." Very unintentional 

 offence was given by another lady, throwing 

 back his jealous glance as he was ushering 

 her into his garden, he fancied he observed 

 her spit, and exclaimed with great ferocity, 

 "Am I a toad, woman ! that ye spit at me 

 that ye spit at me ?'' and without listening 

 to any answer or excuse, drove her out of 

 his garden with imprecations and insult. 



Old Mortality, also, the author saw, just as 

 he has described him, at Dunnattar, occupied 

 in repairing or adorning the tombs of the 

 Cameronian -martyrs. A regular biography 

 of this singular person is given from a com- 

 munication made to Sir Walter, and taken 

 from the mouth of a son of the old man. 

 His name was Robert Pattison. He had 

 been in husbandry-service, and afterwards 

 occupied a patch of ground somewhere on the 

 Duke of Queensbury's estate. When the 

 Highlanders were returning from England 

 on the route to Glasgow in 1745 6, they 



4 V 



