66 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



How long I remained with my aunt, I have now 

 forgotten. After I left her house, I went to lodge 

 with Ned Hatfield, whose wife was an excellent 

 cook and market woman, and had long lived 

 in the family of " Willy Scott," the father of the 

 present Lord Chancellor of England. She was 

 now chiefly employed in keeping the dancing 

 school of Neil Stewart clean and in good order, 

 and sold oranges and fruit to his pupils. Above 

 the school she had the rooms taken to live in, and 

 to let out to lodgers, and it happened that the 

 young man, John McDonald, Mr. Stewart's fiddler, 

 was lodged with her along \vith me. He was 

 accounted an excellent performer on the violin,* 

 and to his performances (the Scottish tunes par- 

 ticularly) I listened with great delight. When 

 Neil Stewart declined, or perhaps died, he was 

 succeeded in this school by Ivey Gregg, and his 

 fiddler, John Frazier, lodged in the same house 

 with me, and with his music I was also pleased 

 as I had been before. After this my landlord 

 got into a very unfortunate way of doing business. 

 Being a heckler (flax dresser), his brethren pre- 

 vailed upon him and 'his wife to permit the tramps 

 or scamps in that line to take up their lodgings 

 with them. Here I was introduced, or at least had 

 an opportunity of becoming acquainted with them, 

 and a pretty set they were. Their conduct was 

 wicked in the extreme. The proper effect, how- 

 ever, was produced upon me ; for I looked upon 

 their behaviour with the utmost disgust. After 

 poor Ned had for some time been cheated and 

 defrauded by this set, he at length got done with 



* He afterwards was a dancing master of eminence at Perth in 

 Scotland. 



