576 



SCOTLAND. 



Before he was executed, he took off his bonnet, and thanked God, that he had never be- 

 trayed confidence, never plundered the poor, and never refused to share his bread with the 

 needy and the stranger. 



The Highlanders are even now much attached to the persons of their chief, though the 

 time is past when they would avenge his quarrel without examining its merits. The Scotch 

 are very hospitable, and in this the traveler sees a favorable difference between Scotland and 

 England. They are also very social, and their suppers are delightful meetings. They are 

 held at about nine, and the company separate before twelve. These ineetings have liule form- 

 ality, but great freedom and cheerfulness. When they separate, they join hands and sing some 

 little song of adieu. The dinners are more formal ; wines are circulated freely, and when the 

 cloth is removed, the lady of the house asks the individual guests, without circumlocution, 

 " will you take a dram? " This consists of whisky, and is taken unmixed ; even the women 

 drink. Suppers, as well as dinners, are closed with hot toddy. All this must be undersiood, 

 however, as now applicable to fewer families than in former days. Though Edinburgh has 

 ceased to be the seat of a court as in former days, yet its society possesses a peculiar and 

 somewhat national character. It is the focus of learning and letters , many of the nobility re- 

 side in the town and immediate vicinity, and though Holyrood* is deserted, or but the transient 



* During the visit of the late king, George the Fourth, 

 to F'dinbuigh, he held what is called a " Drawing-Rooin " 

 at Holyrood House, the following sketch of which lias 

 oeen furnished us by an individual who was present. 

 The description of the dresses and etiquette is equally 

 applicable to the drawing-rooms held at St. James's, and 

 aflbrds a vivid picture of what may be regarded as the 

 highest occasion of mere court ceremony in Europe. 

 Hidyrood, which for a long period nf years had seen her- 

 self deserted by her sovereigns, was now about to be en- 

 livened by the royal presence. His Majesty had made 

 known his intention of holding a drawing-room, and a 

 general note of preparation was .sounded throughout the 

 kingdom. All the taste of the Scottish upholsterers was 

 submitted to the judgment of the Edinburgh dignitaries, 

 and various consultations were held as to the most appro- 

 priate method of rendering the apartments fit for his Ma- 

 jesty's reception. The ducal chambers were at length 

 fitted up with a temporary, but befitting magnificence. 

 The large hall, which was allotted for the presence-cham- 

 ber, was decked in all the splendor of gold and crimson 

 drapery. A throne and canopy of crimson velvet and 

 gold, was erected at the upper end of the apartment. 

 The road between Dalkeith and Holyrood was covered 

 with couriers and messengers whose important faces of 

 consultation and deliberation showed their fears, lest any 

 breach of etiquette should offend the criticizing eye of the 

 most polished sovereio-n in Europe. But while the Lord 

 Provost, with the bailies and magistrates laid their heads 

 together to commune upon these weighty matters, a fairer 

 portion of the community were engaged in deliberations 

 of another description. All that Scotland had of beauty 

 or fashion, of rank or wealth, had congregated to the me- 

 tropolis on the occasion of the King's visit. The peer 

 left his hall, and the peasant his cottage, to welcome their 

 sovereign to the land of his forefathers. Every hotel, 

 every lodging, every corner of every house was crowded 

 to e.xcess. The difficulty of obtaining any mode of con- 

 veyance became so great, that various fashionable and 

 distinguished characters had made their entry in carts 

 and wagons. 



A drawing-room, however common in London, even 

 there excites a sensation ; and on no occasion is greater 

 rivalry displayed whether of dress or equipage. Loyalty 

 and vanity go hand in hand ; the former serving as an 

 excuse for the latter. But in Edinburgh, where no court 

 has resided for centuries, the feeling was totally different. 

 Even among those to whom the cliarm of novelty was 

 worn off, the idea of a court in Holyrood conjured up a 

 thousand romantic feelings. Around that ancient palace 

 is thrown a spell which time can never dissolve. Sur- 

 rounded as it is by mean and uninteresting buildings, 

 who can forget, that these grass-grown entries have echo- 

 ed to the tread of Scotland's proudest chivalry that by 

 that gate, Scotland's fair Queen has rode forthwith hawk 



and hound and hi; iting-horn, surrounded by her gallant 

 train The walls still seem to ring to the silver tones 

 of her voice, and the blood-stained-floor yet gives evi- 

 dence of, the fierceness of those tumultuous spirits whr 

 darkened her youthful days. A king of the Hanoverian 

 line was now about to tread the halls of the Sluarls, and 

 Highlander and Lowlander, forgetful of all ancient feuds, 

 alike prepared to do him homage Old peeresses, who 

 since the days of hoops and of Queen Charlotte, had 

 resided in their mouldering family mansions, now began 

 to pull out their faded court finery, and to sigh over the 

 manifest necessity of procuring new dresses. Their fam- 

 ily coronets looked antique and lustreless. The change 

 was in the brows that bore them. Young peeresses, who 

 had not yet been presented at court, rejoiced in the pros- 

 pect of displaying tlieir new coronetted carriages, and 

 new set jewels, and ail the elegance of white and silver, 

 which a bride must of necessity wear, when she first 

 comes into the presence of her sovereign. Nearly every 

 lady in the kingdom, whose family or fortune could in 

 any way entitle her to appear at t ourt, felt a flutter of 

 expectation, either as to her personal appearance, or suit- 

 able deportment, in a situation which was entirely new 

 to her. Some there weie, indeed, to whom there was 

 little novelty in the prospect. Young ladies who had 

 passed the ordeal of a London spring ; or antiquated dow- 

 agers who had carried their rouge and their diamonds 

 tlirough twenty or thirty successive London seasons. 



Yet, generally speaking, the occasion was one of unusual 

 interest and excitement. The important matter of choos- 

 ing a train of a becoming color caused many a sleepless 

 night. Velvets and satins, feathers and finely of every 

 description, floated in bright disorder before their vision 

 both mentally and bodily. The tradesmen disposed of 

 their goods as if by magic. The milliners' rooms were 

 thronged from morning till night with a fair bevy of eager 

 and anxious faces. The dancing-masters gave private 

 lessons in the most approved mode of performing a court- 

 curtesy ; and then came the important question of how 

 the train was to be managed. Ladies who had been at 

 court instructed their daughters how to hold the long 

 drapery under one arm until tiiey came to the door of the 

 presentation-room, how then to let it fall with grace, and 

 majestically sweep the dust off the palace floors. Day 

 and night the milliners labored incessantly, yet unable to 

 meet the increasing demands which were made upon 

 their nimble fingers. Of the milliners' girls, some grew 

 pale, and others grew sick, and some died ; the shears of 

 f'ale snapping the thread of their life, while their scissors 

 were yet in the unfinished gown 



An African would have thought, that an universal 

 ostrich hunt had taken place in some neighboring desert, 

 or that a tribute of white plumes had been exacted from 

 some monarch of Lybia. It was decreed, that no lady 

 should wear more than 25 ostrich fcathera in her hair at 



