424 
MISCELi/ANEA. 
the shoeing of horses; the anomalous avocations of cowleech, 
dentist, parish clerk, precentor, and newsmonger in general, have 
been collateral distinctions of the village Vulcan ever since, and, 
indeed, long before, Shakspeare’s celebrated passage was written, 
in which Hubert is made to sav;— . 
«/ ' 
- , *. “ I saw-a smith stand with his hammer, thus. 
The whilst his iron did on the'anvil cool. 
With open mouth swallowing - a tailor’s news; 
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand. 
Standing, on slippers (which his nimble haste 
_ Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet). 
Told of many thousand warlike French, 
That were embatteled and rank’d in Kent.’* 
King John. 
And so it happens, that at the very moment of transcribing 
this page, an anecdote of so singular a character, as connected 
with .an individual of this fraternity, is travelling through the 
newspapers, as irresistibly to tempt its preservation in this place, 
as more likely to reflect honour upon the craft in the estimation 
of most persons than the most notable incident in the life of St. 
Dunstan himself.—“ At the late electfoneering canvass for the 
Lanark district of burghs, between Mr. Gillon and Mr. Monteith, 
a poor blacksmith in Peebles, of the name of Alexander Brodie, 
was waited upon by Mr. Monteith's party, and actually offered 
1000 pounds for his vote; but this the honest man firmly 
declined, and, in spite of all entreaties to the contrary, went and 
voted gratis on the side which his conscience told him ought to 
be supported. So great was the admiration excited by this 
instance of integrity, that one of Mr. Gillon’s most distinguished 
friends lately presented to Mr. Brodie a handsome silver snuff¬ 
box, bearing the following inscription, which is alike creditable to 
the donor and receiver:—‘ To Alexander Brodie, blacksmith, 
member of the town council of Peebles, this box is presented, as 
a mark of respect and esteem for the~ unrivalled instance of 
sterling worth and incorruptible integrity exhibited by him during 
the recent canvass for the representation of that burgh, by one of 
Mr. Gillon’s oldest and most attached friends, Sir James DalzelJ, 
bart., of Binns. Aug. 23, 1830/ ” 
This slight digression from the craft to the character of the 
blacksmith may be the more, readily excused, even by the most 
choleric reader, when it is recollected that in our enlightened 
times, instead of the trite terms “ blacksmith and jobsmith in 
general,” the maker of horse-shoes paints on his sign-board 
“ veterinary forge,” at the least: and there is, or at least 
was a few years ago, over a common horse-shoeing blacksmith’s, 
adjoining the Eglise de St. Sulpice, at the end of the rue Feron 
in Paris, the words “ artiste velerinaire !! /”— Lardner's Cabinet 
Cyclopaedia , No. xxiv, p. 158. 
