427 428 WAVERLEY. as a It is a curious, yet well authenticated fact, that the novel of "Waverley "-the first, and perhaps the best, of the prose writing of sir Walter Scott-remained for more than ten years unpublished. So far back as 1805, the late talented Mr. John Ballantyne announced "Waverley work preparing for publication, but the announce excited so little attention, that the design was laid aside for reasons which every reader will guess. In those days of peace and innocence, the spirit of literary speculation had scarcely begun to dawn in Scotland; the public taste ran chiefly on poetry; and even if gifted men had arisen capable of treading in the footsteps of Fielding, but with a name and reputation unestablished, they must have gone to London to find a publisher. The " himself, with all his powers, appears to have magician been by no means over sanguine as to the ultimate success of a tale, which has made millions laugh, and as many weep; and in autumn he had very nearly delivered a portion of the MSS. to a party of sportsmen who visited him in the country, and were complaining of a perfect famine of wadding. A Young Artist's Letter FROM SWITZERLAND. From the letter of an English artist, now abroad, accompanied by marginal sketches with the pen, addressed to a young relation, I am obligingly permitted to take the following EXTRACT, Interlaken, Switzerland. I arrived at Geneva, after a ride of a day and a night, from Lyons, through a delightful mountainous country. The steam-boat carried me from Geneva to Lausanne, a very pretty town, at the other end of the fine lake, from whence I went to Berne, one of the principal towns in Switzerland, and the most beautiful I have seen yet. It is extremely clean, and therefore it was quite a treat, after the French towns, which are filthy. Berne is convenient residence, both in sunny and wet weather, for all the streets have arcades, under which the shops are in this way, The Times, 26th March, from an "Edinburgh paper." so that people are not obliged to walk in the middle of the street at all. The town is protected by strong fortifications, but the ramparts are changed into charming lawns and walks. There are also delightful terraces on the river side, commanding the surrounding country, which is enchantingrich woods and fertile valleys, swelling beyond all, the snowy Alps. mountains, and meadows like velvet; and, persons do who travel on foot through At Berne I equipped myself as most Switzerland; I have seen scores of young give you a sketch, that you may have a men all in the same pedestrian costume. I better idea of it. The dress is a light sort of smock-frock, with a leather belt round the waist, a straw bottle, covered with leather, to carry spirits, hat, a knapsack on the back, and a small fastened round the neck by a leather strap. The long pole is for climbing up the mountains, and jumping over the ice. lake of Thun is surrounded by mountains From Berne I arrived at Thun. The fine of various forms, and I proceeded along it to this place. I have been on the lake of Brientys and to Lauterbrunnen, where there is the celebrated waterfall, called the "Stubach;" it falls about 800 feet; the rocks about it are exceedingly romantic, and close to it are the snowy mountains, among which I should particularize the celebrated "Yung frow," which has never been ascended. Interlaken is surrounded by mountains, but much more beautiful than I can show in a small sketch. They are delicately clean, and mostly have fine vines and plenty of grapes about them. The stones on the roof are to keep the wood from being blown off. Then the people dress so well, and all look so happy, that it is a pleasure to be among them. I cannot understand a word they say, and yet they are all civil and obliging. If any children happen to see me drawing out of doors, they always run to fetch a chair for me. The women are dressed in this manner. only that I observe on a Sunday they wear white nightcaps: every man that I can see now out of my window has one on; and they are all playing at ball and nine-pins, just as they do in France. There is an other kind of cap worn here made of silk; this is limp, and does not look so well, They have also a flat straw hat. The women work much more than the men; they even row the boats on the Jakes. All the Swiss, however, are very industrious; and I like Switzerland altogether exceedingly. I leave this place tomorrow, and am going on to the beautiful valley of Sornen, (there was a view of it in the Diorama,) and then to the lake of the four cantons, or lake of Lucerne, and round the canton of the Valais to Geneva, and from thence for the lakes of Italy. If you examine a map for these places, it will be an amusement for you. Lady Byron has been here for two days; she is making a tour of Switzerland. There are several English passing through. I can scarcely give you a better notion of the situation of this beautiful little village, than by saying that it is in a valley between two lakes, and that there are the most charming walks you can imagine to the eminences on the river side, and along the borders of the lakes. There are more goats here than in Wales: they all wear a little bell round their neck; and the sheep and cows being similarly distinguished, the movement of the flocks and herds keep an incessant tinkling, and relieve the stillness of the beauteous scenery. Gretna Green Marriages. THE BLACKSMITH. On Friday, March 23, at Lancaster Lent assizes 1827, before Mr. baron Hullock, came on the trial of an indictment against Edward Gibbon Wakefield and William Wakefield, (brothers,) Edward Thevenot, (their servant,) and Francès the wife of Edward Wakefield, (father of the brothers,) for conspiring by subtle stratagems and false representations to take and carry away Ellen Turner, a maid, unmarried, and within the age of sixteen years, the only child and heiress of William Turner, from the care of the Misses Daulby, who had the education and governance of Miss Turner, and causing her to contract matrimony with the said Edward Gibbon Wakefield, without the knowledge and consent of her father, to her great disparagement, to her father's discomfort, and against the king's peace. Thevenot was acquitted; the other defendants were found" guilty," and the brothers stood committed to Lancaster-castle. To a second indictment, under the statute of 4 and 5 Philip and Mary, against the brothers, for the abduction of Miss Turner, they withdrew their plea of "not guilty," and pleaded guilty" to the fifth count. In the course of the defence to the first indictment, David Laing, the celebrated blacksmith of Gretna-green, was examined; and, indeed, the trial is only mentioned in these pages, for the purpose of sketching this anomalous character as he appeared in the witness-box, and represented his own proceedings, according to The Times' report:-viz. In appearance this old man was made to assume a superiority over his usual com panions. Somebody had dressed him in a black coat, and velvet waistcoat and breeches of the same colour, with a shining pair of top boots-the shape of his hat, too, resembled the clerical fashion. He seemed a vulgar fellow, though not without shrewd ness and that air of familiarity, which he might be supposed to have acquired by the freedom necessarily permitted by persons of a better rank of life, to one who was conscious he had the power of performing for them a guilty, but important ceremony, On entering the witness-box, he leaned forward towards the counsel employed to examine him, with a ludicrous expression of gravity upon his features, and accompanied every answer with a knitting of his wrinkled brow, and significant nodding of his head, which gave peculiar force to his quaintness of phraseology, and occasionally convulsed the court with laughter. He was interrogated both by Mr. Scarlett and Mr. Coltman in succession. Who are you, Laing? Why, I live in Springfield. Well, what did you do in this affair? Why, I was sent for to Linton's, where I found two gentlemen, as it may be, and one lady. Did you know them? I did not. Do you see them in court? Why I joined them, and then got the lady's address, where she come from, and the party's I believe. What did they do then? Why, the gentleman wrote down the names, and the lady gave way to it. In fact, you married them after the usual way? Yes, yes, I married them after the Scotch form, that is, by my putting on the ring on the lady's finger, and that way. Were they both agreeable? O yes, I joined their hands as man and wife. Was that the whole of the ceremonywas it the end of it? I wished them well, shook hands with them, and, as I said, they then both embraced each other very agreeably. What else did you do? I think I told the lady that I generally had a present from 'em, as it may be, of such a thing as money to buy a pair of gloves, and she gave me, with her own hand, a twenty-shilling Bank of England note to buy them. Where did she get the note? What did the gentleman say to you? Oh, you ask what did he treat me with. No, I do not; what did he say to you? He did nothing to me; but I did to him what I have done to many before, that is, you must know, to join them together; join hands, and so on. I bargained many in that way, and she was perfectly agreeable, and made no objections. Did you give them a certificate? was a printed register, at the top of which was a rudely executed woodcut, apparently of the royal arms.] Did the gentleman and lady converse freely with you? O, yes; he asked me what sort of wine they had in Linton's house, and I said they had three kinds, with the best of Shumpine (Champagne.) He asked me which I would take, and I said Shumpine, and so and so; while they went into another room to dine, I finished the wine, and then off I came. I returned, and saw them still in the very best of comfortable spirits. Mr. SCARLETT. We have done with you, Laing. Mr. BROUGHAM.-But my turn is to come with you, my gentleman. What did you get for this job besides the Shumpine? Did you get money as well as Shumpine? Yes, sure I did, and so and so. Well, how much? Thirty or forty pounds or thereabouts, as may be. Or fifty pounds, as it may be, Mr. Blacksmith? May be, for I cannot say to a few pounds. I am dull of hearing. Was this marriage ceremony, which you have been describing, exactly what the law and church of Scotland require on such occasions, as your certificate (as you call it) asserts? O yes, it is in the old common form. What! Do you mean in the old common form of the church of Scotland, fellow? There is no prayer-book required to be produced, I tell you. Will you answer me when I ask you, what do you mean by the old ordinary form of the church of Scotland, when this transaction has nothing whatever to do with that church? Were you never a clergyman of that country? Never. How long are you practising this delightful art? Upwards of forty-eight years I am doing these marriages. How old are you? I am now beyond seventy-five. Pretty doing it is; but how did you get your livelihood, say, before these last precious forty-eight years of your life? I was a gentleman. What do you call a gentleman? Being sometimes poor, sometimes rich. Come now, say what was your occupation before you took to this trade? Were you ever any thing else in the way of calling? Never. Come back now to what you call the Do you pretend to say that it marriage. was done after the common old form of the church of Scotland? Is not the general way by a clergyman? That is not the general way altoge ther. Do you mean that the common ordinary way in Scotland is not to send for a clergyman, but to go a hunting after a fellow like you? Scotland is not in the practice altogether of going after clergymen. Many does not go that way at all. Do you mean to swear, then, that the regular common mode is not to go before a clergyman? I do not say that, as it may be. Answer me the question plainly, or else you shall not so easily get back to this good old work of yours in Scotland as you think? 1 say as it may be, the marriages in Scotland an't always done in the churches. I know that as well as you do, for the clergyman sometimes attends in private houses, or it is done before a justice depute; but is this the regular mode? I say it ent no wrong mode-it is law. Re-examined by Mr. SCARLETT. Well, is it the irregular mode? No, not irregular, but as it may be unregular, but its right still. You mean your own good old unregular mode? Yes; I have been both in the courts of Edinburgh and Dublin, and my marriages have always been held legal. What form of words do you use? Why, you come before me, and sayMr. SCARLETT.-No, I will not, for I do not want to be married; but suppose a man did who called for your services, what is he to do? Why, it is I that do it. Surely I ask them, before two witnesses, do you take one and other for man and wife, and they say they do, and I then declare them to be man and wife for ever more, and so and so, in the Scotch way you observe. The COURT.-Mr. Attorney, (addressing Mr. Scarlett, who is attorney general for the county palatine,) is it by a fellow like this, that you mean to prove the custom of the law of Scotland as to valid marriage? Here the blacksmith's examination terminated. SPRING. Oh, how delightful to the soul of man, Of lovely clouds, their edges tipped with gold; To him who sheltered, when the storms were deep, Turn to the ocean-how the scene is changed! Eccentric Biography. JAMES CHAMBERS. This unfortunate being, well known by the designation of "the poor poet," was born at Soham, in Cambridgeshire, in 1748, where his father was a leather-seller, but having been unfortunate in business, and marrying a second wife, disputes and family broils arose. It was probably from this discomfort in his paternal dwelling-place, that he left home never to return. At first, and for an uncertain period, he was a maker and seller of nets and some small wares. Afterwards, he composed verses on birthdays and weddings, acrostics on names, and such like matters. Naturally mild and unassuming in his manners, he attracted the attention and sympathy of many, and by this means lived, er, rather, suffered life! That his mind was diseased there can be no doubt, for no sane being would have preferred an existence such as his. What gave the first morbid turn to his feelings is perhaps unknown. His sharp, lively, sparkling eye might have conveyed an idea that he had suffered disappointment in the tender passion; while, from the serious tendency of many of his compositions, it may be apprehended that religion, or false notions of religion, in his very young days, operated to increase the unhappiness that distressed his faculties. Unaided by education of any kind, he yet had attained to write, although his MSS. were scarcely intelligible to any but himself; he could spell correctly, was a very decent grammarian, and had even acquired a smattering of Latin and Greek. From the age of sixteen to seventy years, poor Chambers travelled about the county of Suffolk, a sort of wandering bard, gaining a precarious subsistence by selling his own effusions, of which he had a number printed in cheap forms. Among the poorer people of the country, he was mostly received with a hearty welcome; they held him in great estimation as a poet, and sometimes bestowed on him a small pecuniary recompense for the ready adaptation of his poetical qualities, in the construction of verses on certain occasions suitable to their taste or wishes. Compositions of this nature were mostly suggested to him by his muse during the stillness of night, while reposing in some friendly barn or hay-loft. When so inspired, he would immediately arise and commit the effusion to paper. His memory was retentive, and, to amuse his hearers, be would repeat most of his pieces by heart. |