668 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[Nov. 



perfect transmutations as Mr. C. delights to 

 represent, are full of improbability. This, 

 however, detracts notliing from the work— . 

 tliat is unique. Mr. C. has, and can have 

 no rival in his department; he is full of 

 thought, with a mind direct and single, and 

 describes, graphically and dramatically, to 

 compete with any of his cdtemporaries. 



Waverly Novels. Antiquary. 1829 



The broad features of Jonathan Oldbuck, 

 though masqued with all the writer's well- 

 practised skill, were detected by one who 

 recognized in them a friend of the author's 

 family, and the fondly cherished secret was 

 tlms in manifest danger of exposure, for 

 the discoverer coidd not of course consent to 

 conceal the proof of his own sagacity. In 

 the introduction to the Chronicles of the 

 Canongate, the autlior acknowledged the 

 truth of the discovery, and now recurs to 

 the subject only to protest against the too 

 liberal interpretation of his acknowledgment, 

 especially to guard against the supposition 

 that any printer's ink polluted the j)ure cur- 

 rent in his old friend's veins. Nothing, it 

 seems, was borrowed from actual circum- 

 stances, but tlie bare fact of the original's 

 residence in an old house near a flourishing 

 sea-port ; and the scene between liim and 

 the female proprietor of a stage-coach, which 

 the author clianced to witness, and which it 

 appears was very similar to the one which 

 introduces the ' Antiquary.' 



Ochiltree had it seems an individual pro- 

 totype — the author had in his eye one An- 

 drew GemmeUs, who many years ago was 

 well known in the vales of Gala, Tweed, 

 Ettrick, Yarrow, and the adjoining country. 

 The beggars of Scotland, within the author's 

 recollection, were, he says, like the Bac- 

 cocli, or travelling cripple of Ireland, ex- 

 pected to make some return for tlieir quar- 

 ters. Tliey were often talkative, facetious 

 fellows, prompt at repartee, and giving free 

 scope to their fancies and tongues, using, 

 with their patched coats, the privilege con- 

 ferred on the ancient jesters by their pie-bald 

 ones. To be a giide crack, that is, to pos- 

 sess talents for conversation, was essential 

 to tlie trade of a piiir body of the more es- 

 teemed class. Andrew was well known to 

 the author in his youth. He wa.s a line old 

 figure, and he knetv it ; tall and soldier-like, 

 with inteUigent features, and a sarcastic 

 expression, he had little of the cant of his 

 profession, and rather claimed than asked 

 for food and shelter and a "trifle of money." 

 He sang a good song, told a good story, 

 launched a severe jest upon occasion, and 

 secured a good reception as much from fear 

 of his satire as feeling for his wants. An- 

 drew, too, was ready and willing to play at 

 cards and dice, and was in short a very 

 jovial and companionable person. The late 

 Dr. Douglas, minister of Galashiels, as- 

 sured the author his la.st recollection of An- 

 drew was seeing him playing a game of brag 

 with a gentleman of fortune and birth, on 



a window-sill ; the great man within doors, 

 and the beggar witliout, just to keep up the 

 distinction of ranks a little, it may be sup- 

 posed. A country gentleman, reputed a 

 narrow man, once meeting him, regretted 

 he had no silver, or he would give him a 

 sixpence. " I can give you change for a 

 note, laird," replied Andrew. The profes- 

 sion sunk, it seems, in profit and respecta- 

 bility in his time. " It was," he said, 

 " forty pounds a year worse than when he 

 first practised it." 



Sir Walter also reminds his fellow colle- 

 gians at Edinbiurgh, of a venerable old 

 bedesman, or blue-gown (a privileged beg- 

 gar) who stood by the Potter-row port, now 

 demolished. He was as remarkable for 

 reserve, and silent solicitation, as Andrew 

 was for his impudence, and apparently was 

 even more successful. He maintained a 

 son in the theological classes of the Univer- 

 sity, at the gate of which he stood as a men- 

 dicant generally. The young man was cut 

 in the college, but one fellow-student, per- 

 haps Sir '\V. himself, feeling for his ex- 

 cluded condition, offered him occasional 

 civilities, for which the old man felt equally 

 grateful, and expressed his obligation in a 

 very novel manner. Watching the coming 

 out of the friendly student, the old man, 

 one day, bent more than usually forward, 

 and instead of receiving the halfpenny 

 which the other was offering, thanked him 

 for his kindness to Jammic, and gave him 

 a cordial invitation to dine with them next 

 Saturday, on a slioulder of mutton and po- 

 tatoes, adding, " ye'U put on your clean sark, 

 as I have company." 



Sir Walter thus vindicates Ochiltree's 

 right to the importance assigned him — one 

 beggar he has shewn taking a hand at cards 

 with a person of distinction, and another 

 giving dinner parties. 



Historical Miscellany, c^c. by TV. Tay- 

 lor, A.M., of Trinity College, Dublin. 

 1829. — This is a very superior book, com- 

 pared with the common run of school-books, 

 and goes more out of the ordinary beat, 

 taking in matters tliat hitherto have rarely 

 been introduced into them. The volume is 

 represented as fitted and destined to foriti a 

 supplement to Pinnock's Greek and Roman 

 and English histories, and is, in the saine 

 manner, furnished with sets of questions, 

 and references for specific answers. In the 

 story of Greeks and Romans, their respective 

 struggles with the Persians and Cartha- 

 ginians, are the prominent points, and the 

 usual school books confine themselves chiefly 

 to the details of the triumphant party. The 

 little that is known, or can be fairly in- 

 ferred, relative to Persia and Carthage, ' 

 BJr. Taylor has thrown into separate narra- ' 

 tives, and has attempted, as far as he could, | 

 to raise them nearer than has hitherto been ! 

 done to their real importance ; and thus 

 counterbalance, in some degree, the effect j 

 tliat inevitably attends the hearing of one 



