图书图片
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

woman, when a girl of about three
years old, was diverting herself with
her fellow children, when a company
of diminutive men, dressed in green,
suddenly made their appearance a-
mongst them, and each of them, all
on a sudden, seizing her by different
parts of her clothes and body, carried
her off. The children who witnessed
the loss of their companion immedi-
ately betook themselves to flight, and
gave the alarm to her parents. Upon
their hearing the account which they
gave of the matter, they at once con-
cluded that their child was carried off
to Fairyland, by the fairies. Placing
implicit faith, however, as was gene-
rally done in these days, in religious
influence, they caused her to be re-
membered in the prayers of no fewer
than seven churches. This method
of attempting her restoration was ul-
timately attended with the desired ef-
fect one of the ministers to whom
they applied was a Mr Davidson, mi-
nister of Galashiels, an eminent and
worthy divine, and, like the illustri
ous Dr Boston, his contemporary and
intimate acquaintance, (from whom
he may, perhaps, have got the secret
of the knack,) eminently distinguish-
ed in those days for his skill in ex-
pelling troublesome spirits from their
haunts, Mr Davidson soothed their
affliction, by telling them that "all
the devils in hell should not keep her;"
and his prediction was soon fulfilled,
for a day or two after prayers were of
fered up for her restoration, she was
found in a romantic forest called the
Plora Wood, eating the bark of trees.
This wood is about a mile below the
village of Inverleithen, at a short dis-
tance from Peebles. When they in-
quired of her where she had been, or
what she had been doing, she would
tell them nothing more, than that she
was getting milk and bread from her
mother; and to this insignificant an-
swer she always adhered. She was,
ever afterwards, observed to have a
melancholy cast in her countenance,
which my narrator distinctly remem-
bers. He tells me also, that at times,
something was discovered in her fea-
tures very wild and unnatural. This
story was believed by the whole vil-
lage, who had for their informants
eye-witnesses to the affair, the chil-
dren who were present at the child's

An odd number was reckoned lucky.

being carried off by the fairies, and by whom my narrator has likewise been told of it. It can only be accounted for in one way, which seems the most probable. The child may have inadvertently strayed from its companions, and lost itself in the wood, where it might have subsisted upon shrubs and the bark of trees.

This explanation, however, will not account for all the circumstances, and there are many stories, the authenticity of which admits of no doubt in the minds of those who pretend to have had ocular evidence of their truth. The following is one, as it was related to me by the adven turer himself. When he was a boy, attending a country school, he passed on his road thither a scaur, by the side of a rivulet, where he was accustomed, as he positively affirmed, to meet two little fairies dressed in green coats. They never offered him the least molestation, but, on the contrary, while passing by, they used to divert themselves very innocently with dancing, an amusement of which they are reported to have been particularly fond. They would at other times sing, or play on their favourite musical instrument, the bagpipes, when they danced, both, in a circular figure, in the same sportive and harmless manner. After having amused themselves for some time in this way, they would both at once disappear, leaving the shrill notes of the bagpipes echoing amongst the rugged cliffs, and my narrator standing in amazement. These adventures happened generally on the Saturday e venings, and, it being in the summer season, the stillness of the evening, and the secluded situation of the place, conspired to render the scene peculiarly sublime. He says that he never held any personal conferences with these two tiny companions, for, as they did not molest him, he was careless about troubling them, lest he should have given them offence. The truth of this story he affirmed to me upon the faith of a Christian. He is a man of about eighty years old, and, from any accounts of his character which I could collect, is quite a credible and decent man, and he would, one would suppose, certainly never run the risk of having the good character which he maintains in every thing else doubted, for the bare pur

pose of telling this nugatory story. But, to enter upon any inquiry concerning the origin of these stories, would involve me in a long and complicated, and, I believe, in somewhat an unsatisfactory speculation. I shall, therefore, rather pursue the more easy and also more pleasant task of illustrating the opinions of our fathers by the relation of a few more of their stories.

The fairies are represented as having been of an obliging disposition towards their earthly neighbours, when well treated by them, but when, on the contrary, they were treated harshly, they were alike alert to show their resentment in some exemplary manner. A familiarity even sometimes subsisted between them and those who had had the good luck to obtain their favour. When in a working mood, or disposed to do their favourites a service, they would sometimes perform during the night such pieces of work as they knew would be serviceable. If a iniller, for instance, happened to be in their favour, they would go into his mill, (a place where they particularly delighted to perform wonderful feats,) and execute much work in one night as the miller himself could do in a week. It is also said, that they had ever a great desire to borrow articles of food, for which they always made a sufficient return, often giving many times the quantity they received. Two fairies are said to have frequented the farmhouse of Winningtonrig, in the days of yore, that were particularly pointed in this respect. Besides the stories of their generosity, there is one of a different description. One summer's morning about day-break the people in the house were alarmed with the noise of the bagpipes in the kitchen. On opening the kitchen door, they saw their old friends the fairies retreating up the lum* in great confusion, and seemingly much disappointed on their mirth being thus interrupted. For this they took a singular method of revenge. They caused all the swine, gruntlings, and asses about the town to exert their harmonious voices to the utmost of their power during the whole day, and, that this device might annoy them

Chimney.

still more, they kept continually chasing them into the rooms and other parts of the house. The discordant sounds produced by this concert of vocal music was a striking contrast to the noise of the bagpipes, with which they were enjoying themselves when disturbed by the family, and for which they took this method of showing their displeasure. Next morning the animals' voices were restored to their wonted tone.

Of that species of generosity anciently ascribed to the fairies, the following story will enable the reader to form some notion. About the beginning of harvest, there having been a want of meal for shearers' bread in the farm-house of Bedrule, a small quantity of barley (being all that was yet ripe) was cut down, and converted into meal. Mrs Buckham, the farmer's wife, rose carly in the morning to bake the bread, and, while engaged in baking, a little woman, in green costume, came in, and, with much politeness, asked for a loan of a capful of meal. Mrs Buckham thought it prudent to comply with her request. In a short time afterwards the woman in green returned with an equal quantity of meal, which Mrs Buckham put into the meal-urk. This meal had such a lasting quality, that from it alone the gudewife of Bedrule baked as much bread as served her own family and the reapers throughout the harvest, and when harvest was over it was not finished. The great-grandchildren of Mrs Buckham are still living, and fill very respectable stations in Selkirk, in whose family, I am informed, the legend is still preserved.

To multiply such stories as these could serve no good purpose. From such as I have given, the general tenor of the whole that are yet afloat among the older classes may be collected, for in their leading features they are all somewhat similar-the same proneness to the marvellous pervading the whole.

Contrary to my original intention, I find that I have extended these pages to such a length, as necessarily to exclude what I intended to have given concerning witches. This I shall, in consequence, reserve for a future communication, and shall finally conIclude with a few relations illustrative of the ancient and more peculiar ha

[blocks in formation]

IF the following letter be of any service as a representation of Scottish character in a part of Scotland hitherto comparatively little known, you will oblige me by giving it a place in your Miscellany. The writer lays no claim to elegance in his composition, for, like the beings he describes, he has taken up the greater part of his education at his own hand, when following his flocks among the mountains of Nithsdale and Ayrshire. I believe he has experienced all the varieties of feeling that agitate the bosom of a Scottish peasant; and, for that reason, if he can contrive to make himself understood, I look upon him as tolerably well qualified to describe them. I must apprise you of one thing, however, before introducing him to your acquaintance-he is a rhymer, like myself; and if, out of vanity, he should sometimes exercise your patience by giving you one of his songs, you must just bear with him as I do. Upon the whole, his

letter and he bear a remarkable re

semblance to each other-they are baith gay an' thro' ither.

To Mr H, Greenock.
MY DEAR H-

You wish me to procure you a particular account of the most remarkable superstitions that are still afloat in the upper districts of Dumfriesshire. This I shall certainly do as soon as I can find an opportunity of conversing with some of our old greyheaded friends in the parishes of Kirkconnel and Sanquhar. In the mean time, as I have been lately visiting our old acquaintances on the banks of the Glenmuir, and particularly in the parish of Muirkirk, I wish to direct your attention to the remarkable apparition that was seen by our friend JM at the grave of Cameron in Ayrsmoss. It is probable he may have told you of it himself before he went to America; but, as I am

not certain whether he has or not, I shall tell you the story as he tauld it

me.

You recollect very well, when you and I were about Muirkirk, that the mischievous poetical genius of JM-used to keep the whole parish in an uproar; it would allow nothing to lie at rest; it even shook the mountains, and raised the vera dead out o' their graves:-for, besides conjuring up the ghost of How-d'ye-ca'm's auld and astonishment of the hail kintra inare to proclaim aloud, to the terror side, how ill she had been used during the time of her sojourning here below, he began a dispute between the two neighbouring hills of CairnTable and Middlefield-law, that was like to alarm the neighbourhood, and I am not certain if the difference be exactly settled at this day.

By these and a hundred tricks more of the same kind did our poet distinguish himself among his companions; and, as he possessed naturally a guid of the best educations Muirkirk could gift o' the gab, and had, besides, one afford him, whether out of vanity or amusement I shall not presume to say, but so it was, he took a certain pride in contradicting sundry articles of popular belief. He would not believe that even his Clootieship was so idle, or yet so fond of rural amusements, as to come and divert himself at puttin the stane with some of the shepherds about Staniehill and Wardlaw, or that he excelled so much in that diversion as to take up one about the size of an ordinary steam-hoat, and heave it frae the ane hill-side to the ither at ae swing, a distance of perhaps a mile and three quarters. As little would he believe, when the good people's cats on Glenmuir-water cam in a' drouket on Halloween, that the fairies had gallopped on them from their summer habitation amang the heather blooms on Ward-law, to their winter quarters on the Domald-moat. He could not conceive that it was possible for any person to see a spirit. How could ever an immaterial existence be perceptible to bodily eyes? They were all beings of the imagination, and never seen by any body in good health or in their sound senses.

By these and many more arguments of the same kind did our philosopher attack the foundations of the popular faith,-a faith that had de

scended from father to child through many successive generations, and in the truth of which they believed as firmly as in any of the miracles of Moses, and which, for that very reason, it was not advisable to meddle with. J- M- did not consider these things, however, and glorious was his career in pulling down the strong holds of error and superstition. One philosophical victory followed another. Ghosts, brownies, and witches, trembled at his approach, till he had almost persuaded himself into the belief that the vera deil durst hardly steer him.

How far our friend might have proceeded in such laudable and profound discoveries, I know not, but it is certain, from his own confession, that he saw as much one night as put an end to his scepticism, and convinced him that there was more in heaven and earth than he dreamed of in his philosophy."

[ocr errors]

A little above the foot of the 'haunt ed Garpal,' on the opposite side of the water of Ayr, stands the lonely little cottage of Tarreoch, or perhaps with more propriety, (Tir Crioch,) for it is exactly on the end of Ayrsmoss. Farther up the water, about half a mile beyond the Through-stane, is situated the neat little mansion of Nether Wellwood. Here, you recollect, the hero of our story officiated in the character of farmer's servant; here, in the innocent days of his boyhood, he spent his time in driving carts, making songs, forming theories, and forming ditches. He was young, and, like all other young poets, he would have sacrificed every other consideration, to the pleasure of spending an hour in the company of a bonnie lassie. The lady of his love, for the time being, was an inmate of the above mentioned Tarreoch. And, according to the laws of gallantry established in the parish of Muirkirk, as you know well, my dear H. it was indispensably necessary that he should pay a visit to his Dulcinea, at least every Tuesday or Friday night. He did so; and fortified as he was with love and philosophy together, he was determined to set all the powers of darkness at defiance for once. Armed with this goodly resolution, as he came home from Tarreoch, instead of directing his course the nearest way for the Wellwood, he bent it straight

He

for Cameron's grave. It was in the
howe dead o' the nicht, a close mist,
and nothing to disturb the silence of
the solitary moorland, save the lonely
murmurs of the Ayr, and now and
then the muirfowl springing on whir-
ring wings frae the dark moss hags
and heather bushes at the approach
of our devil-defying traveller.
would certainly have lost his way, had
it not been for the red flashing glare
of Muirkirk furnaces gleaming through
the mist at intervals, and which ser-
ved to shew him that he had now
reached the little green swaird, where,
over the grave of the murdered, stands
the Through-stane, whereon are en-
graved an open Bible, and the hand
of the minister grasping his sword,
under which are the following lines:

Halt, curious passenger, come here and
read,

Our souls triumph with Christ our glorious
head,

In self-defence we murdered here do lie,
To witness 'gainst this nation's perjury.

What were his thoughts in such a place, at such an hour, I cannot tell. He told me he feared neither ghost nor devil; perhaps neither of them was there; but, "Look, my lord, it comes!" "Twas something more awful than either. "It stood still, but he could not discern the form thereof." In the appearance of horses and a chariot of fire, it described a circular course half round the grave; the drivers seemed clothed in light. The heather appeared bending under its burning wheels. As he gazed on it for about the space of half a minute, it vanished in a cloud of mist. He trembled, and felt as if the Almighty had passed by on his horses and chariots of salvation.

He was so overcome with terror at what he had seen, that he lost his way among the mist, and wandered for sometime in the moss between the Wellwood and Well-trees. At last he found the highway from Muirkirk to Old Cumnock; but he was so stupid, that he knew not whether to turn to the right hand or to the left. After considering the upper side of the road and the lower, however, he found his way home. When he went to bed his fellow-servant was asleep, and he was determined to conceal his conversion from him and every one else if possible. With this resolution

he lay down, but he trembled so with
the apprehension of seeing another vi-
sion, that all attempts at concealment
were in vain. He awakened his bed-
fellow, told him what he had seen,
and immediately his mind was at ease.
This, my dear H. is the substance of
the account J-- M- gave me. I
believe it just as firmly as that I have
this pen in my hand. You know
well the effects of it were visible in
his after life and conversation.

very

In my way from Glasgow to Sanquhar, along with a friend, I visited the Through-stane last summer. The appearance of the place is wofully changed. The beautiful green leas of Nether Wellwood, where we used to lie and read, while our lambs were feeding on the "fragrant flowrie swaird," have all been tortured by the tearing plough. The gowanie brae at the side o' Pal-wharnie Burn, where we read Ossian's Poems, and wunnart how they cou'd be poems, because they didna metre, was not to be distinguished from the red earth around it. Here and there I saw a solitary shepherd boy following the charge that once was ours, playfully sporting with his little dog, or lying among the heather puin' strawberries. One little boy I met with of a most interesting character. He was happet aneath his grey plaid, in the bield of a green rash-buss. He had been reading, for when I came up he closed a wee pocket Bible. I imagined he had been weeping, for his eyes were wet. I inquired after his little history, and where his parents lived. faMy ther and mither are baith dead," said he, “an I hae nae body to leuk to me but my master and mistress; but they're unco kin' to me. Yonder the place where my father stay't-It gars me aye greet when I look at it. That was my father's Bible; there the psalm they sang that night he dee't. I'm aye vext when I read the Psalms -I used to say them to my father on the Sabbath nichts, when he tell't me an my wee brithers it he was soon gaun to die, and gart us aye fa' to the greetin; but he bade us dight our een and no greet, for if we saught the

"Help, Lord, because the godly man

Doth daily fade away;
And from among the sons of men
The faithful do decay."

Almighty, he wad be a father to us
when he was dead an gane.”
Logan Banks, March 1820.

GERMAN REVIEWS.

THERE is no doubt but our readers observed on the day our last Number was published, an extraordinary bustle in all the booksellers' shops in Edinburgh. For our parts, when we saw the porters sallying forth heavily laden from our publishers, and heard these latter promising a hundred praying customers that each should be the first served, our vanity led us for a mo ment to think that we ourselves were the occasion of all this ado. We had forgotten that on the same day also was published the Monastery. The sight, however, of this intense public interest recalled to us the time, When breathless in the mart the couriers

[blocks in formation]

length sublime,

And our glad eyes, awake as day begun, Watched joy's broad banner rise, to meet the rising sun.

ed that a new fiction should now And we felt ourselves highly delightexcite those warm feelings of impatience of delight-of almost extravagant joy, which were formerly only produced by a bloody and dear bought victory. The mind is precisely like the body. The dram-drinker or the opium-taker must have recourse to some still stronger life-shortening poisons, before he can feel the glow of excitement, while he who merely sips Bell's ale, is animated by a single glass of wholesome wine. The din and the clank of arms which made us insensible to every sound but the shrill trumpet, or the loud mouthed cannon, has passed away, and we can now dwell with delight on the harp of poetry, or on the sweet sounding shell of fiction. This, we think, is as it should be, we at least could have no hope of being heard when the Courier had to tell the world of a victory, or the Chronicle warned its readers to expect a defeat. We were neither defenders nor avengers of our country, and we could

« 上一页继续 »