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EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY W. AND R. CHAMBERS.

CHAMBERS'S

POCKET MISCELLANY.

STORY OF AN EDINBURGH BOY.

ABOUT sixty or seventy years ago, the message-porters of Edinburgh, then called caddies, were a very important, and, as they still are, a very useful class of men, but particularly so to strangers, whom they served in some measure as what the French call valets-de-place. There were then no directories, no pocket-plans, or descriptions of the city, and no communication by subsidiary postoffices; neither were the houses numbered, as they are at the present day. All the duty, therefore, which is now performed by these ingenious contrivances, devolved upon the caddie. Without his assistance, the stranger could hardly have found his way through the city, for the sceing of sights or paying of visits; neither could he hold written communication with his friends through any medium so convenient and efficient as the caddie, who knew every hole and bore in the city, and every person residing in it of the smallest note. The scrupulous integrity, too, of these men, was no less remarkable than their intelligence. They could be safely trusted with property to any amount; and no instance, we believe,

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was ever known of any one of them having abused the confidence reposed in him. Strangers, therefore, who visited the city, either previously informed of the necessity of procuring the services of a caddie, or very soon discovering how indispensable some such assistance was, generally attached one of these men to their temporary establishments during their sojourn, to conduct them through the town, to deliver messages and notes to their friends and acquaintances, and to execute any small missions of a similar kind which they desired to have performed.

Doing in this respect as others did, Captain Chillingham, of His Majesty's 29th Regiment of Foot, quartered, at the time we allude to, in the castle of Edinburgh, employed a caddie of the name of Campbell to transact all that sort of business for him of which we have spoken. It was this man's custom to call every morning on his employer, at his room in the castle, to inquire whether he had anything to be done, or was likely to require his services during the day. On one of these occasions Campbell, when about a week's intercourse had placed him on something like a familiar footing with the captain, brought his son with him, a fine, stout, intelligent-looking boy of about fourteen or fifteen years of age, and introduced him to his employer, explaining at the same time the object which he had in view in doing so : this was to assure him that, in case he himself should happen at any time to be unable, in consequence of other engagements, to attend him or execute his commands, he might rely on receiving equally efficient services from his boy James, whom, he added, he felt satisfied the captain would find to be an uncommonly clever and active lad, faithful to his trust, and scrupulously honest: And, sir,' concluded the father, I hope your honour, therefore, will not hesitate to employ him.' Captain Chillingham looked at the boy; and certainly, if he had not had every confidence in the integrity of his father, he might have been warranted in hesitating to accept the services of the son, under any circumstances which might demand probity as a qualifi

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