from B- Park (the seat of another great and rich lady in our neighborhood). I confess, Mr. Mirror, I was struck somewhat of a heap with the message, and it would not, in all probability, have received an immediate answer had it not been overheard by my eldest daughter, who had come to the window on the appearance of a stranger. "Mr. Papillot," said she, immediately, "I rejoice to see you; I hope your lady and all the family are well." "Very much at your service, ma'am," he replied, with a low bow; "my lady sent me before with the offer of her best compliments, and that, if convenient," and so forth, repeating his words to me. "She does us infinite honor," said my young madam; "let her ladyship know how happy her visit will make us; but, in the mean time, Mr. Papillot, give your horse to one of the servants, and come in and have a glass of something after your ride." "I am afraid," answered he (pulling out his right-hand watch, for, would you believe it, sir? the fellow had one in each fob), "I shall hardly have time to meet my lady at the place she appointed me." On a second invitation, however, he dismounted and went into the house, leaving his horse to the care of the servants; but the servants, as my daughter very well knew, were all in the fields at work; so I, who have a liking for a good horse, and cannot bear to see him neglected, had the honor of putting Mr. Papillot's in the stable myself. After about an hour's stay, for the gentleman seemed to forget his hurry within doors, Mr. Papillot departed. My daughters-I mean the two polite ones-observed how handsome he was, and added another observation, that it was only to particular friends my lady sent messages by him, who was her own body-servant, and not accustomed to such offices. My wife seemed highly pleased with this last remark: I was about to be angry, but on such occasions it is not my way to say much; I generally shrug up my shoulders in silence: yet, as I said before, Mr. Mirror, Ï would not have you think me henpecked. By this time every domestic about my house, male and female, were called from their several employments to assist in the preparations for her ladyship's reception. It would tire you to enumerate the various shifts that were made by purchasing, borrowing, &c., to furnish out a dinner suitable to the occasion. My little gray pony, which I keep for sending to market, broke his wind in the cause, and has never been good for any thing since. Nor was there less ado in making ourselves and our attendants fit to appear before such company. The female part of the family managed the matter pretty easily; women, I observe, having a natural talent that way. My wife took upon herself the charge of apparelling me for the occasion. A laced suit, which I had worn at my marriage, was got up for the purpose; but the breeches burst a seam at the very first attempt of pulling them on, and the sleeves of the coat were also impracticable; so she was forced to content herself with clothing me in my Sunday's coat and breeches, with the laced waistcoat of the abovementioned suit, slit in the back, to set them off a little. My gardener, who has been accustomed, indeed, to serve in many capacities, had his head cropped, curled, and powdered, for the part of butler; one of the best-looking plough-boys had a yellow cape clapped to his Sunday's coat, to make him pass for a servant in livery; and we borrowed my son-in-law the parson's man for a third hand. All this was accomplished, though not without some tumult and disorder, before the arrival of the great lady. She gave us, indeed, more time for the purpose than we looked for, as it was near six o'clock before she arrived. But this was productive of a misfortune on the other hand: the dinner my poor wife had bustled, sweated, and scolded for, was so over-boiled, overstewed, and over-roasted, that it needed the appetite of so late an hour to make it go well down even with me, who am not very nice in these matters; luckily, her ladyship, as I am told, never eats much, for fear of spoiling her shape, now that small waists have come into fashion again. The dinner, however, though spoiled in the cooking, was not thrown away, as her ladyship's train made shift to eat the greatest part of it. When I say her train, I do not mean her servants only, of which there were half a dozen in livery, besides the illustrious Mr. Papillot and her ladyship's maid,-gentlewoman, I should say,-who had a table to themselves. Her parlor attendants were equally numerous, consisting of two ladies and six gentlemen, who had accompanied her ladyship in this excursion, and did us the honor of coming to eat and drink with us, and bringing their servants to do the same, though we had never seen or heard of them before. During the progress of this entertainment there were several little embarrassments which might appear ridiculous in description, but were matters of serious distress to us. Soup was spilled, dishes overturned, and glasses broken, by the awkwardness of our attendants; and things were not a bit mended by my wife's solicitude (who, to do her justice, had all her eyes about her) to correct them. From the time of her ladyship's arrival, it was impossible that dinner could be over before it was dark; this, with the consideration of the bad road she had to pass through in her way to the next house she meant to visit, produced an invitation from my wife and daughters to pass the night with us, which, after a few words of apology for the trouble she gave us, and a few more of the honor we received, was agreed to. This gave rise to a new scene of preparation, rather more difficult than that before dinner. My wife and I were dislodged from our own apartment to make room for our noble guests. Our four daughters were crammed in by us, and slept on the floor, that their rooms might be left for the two ladies and four of the gentlemen who were entitled to the greatest degree of respect; for the remaining two we found beds at my son-in-law's. My two eldest daughters had. indeed, little time to sleep, being closeted the greatest part of the night with their right honorable visitor. My offices were turned topsy-turvy for the accommodation of the servants of my guests, and my own horses turned into the fields that theirs might occupy my stable. All these are hardships of their kind, Mr. Mirror, which the honor_that_accompanies them seems to me not fully to compensate; but these are slight grievances in comparison with what I have to complain of as the effects of this visit. The malady of my two eldest daughters is not only returned with increased violence upon them, but has now communicated itself to every other branch of my family. My wife, formerly a decent, discreet woman, who liked her own way, indeed, but was a notable manager, now talks of this and that piece of expense as necessary to the rank of a gentlewoman, and has lately dropped some broad hints that a winter in town is necessary to the accomplishment of one. My two younger daughters have got the heads that formerly belonged to their elder sisters, to each of whom, unfortunately, the great lady presented a set of feathers, for which new heads were essentially requisite. This affectation of fashion has gone a step lower in my household. My gardener has tied his hair behind, and stolen my flour to powder it, ever since he saw Mr. Papillot; and yesterday he gave me warning that he should leave me next term if I did not take him into the house, and provide another hand for the work in the garden. I found a great hoyden, who washes my daughters' linen, sitting, the other afternoon, dressed in one of their cast fly-caps, entertaining this same oaf of a gardener and the wives of two of my farm-servants, with tea, forsooth; and when I quarrelled with her for it, she replied that Mrs. Dimity, my Lady -'s gentlewoman, told her all the maids at had tea and saw company of an afternoon. But I am resolved on a reformation, Mr. Mirror, and shall let my wife and daughters know that I will be master of my own house and my own expenses, and will neither be made a fool or a beggar, though it were after the manner of the greatest lord in Christendom. Yet I confess I am always for trying gentle methods first. I beg, therefore, that you will insert this in your next paper, and add to it some exhortations of your own, to pre vail on them, if possible, to give over a behavior which, I think, under favor, is rather improper even in great folks, but is certainly ruinous to little ones. I am, &c. JOHN HOMESPUN. WALTER SCOTT, 1771–1832. But thou, with powers that mock the aid of praise, To future times her faded fame recall, And save her glory, though his country fall.-BYRON. THIS illustrious author, the son of Walter Scott, a "Writer to the Signet" in the Scottish capital, was born in Edinburgh, on the 15th of August, 1771. He received the chief portion of his school education at the High School of Edinburgh, then under the care of the celebrated Dr. Adam; but during the four years that he remained there he does not appear to have displayed any remarkable abilities, except for tale-telling, in which he excelled. "The chief employment of my holidays" (says he, in the general introduction to his novels) "was to escape with a chosen friend, who had the same taste with myself, and alternately to recite to each other such wild adventures as we were able to devise." In October, 1783, he entered the University of Edinburgh, and left it in a year or two, without having added much to his stock of classical knowledge. At the age of fifteen, the breaking of a blood-vessel brought on an illness which, to use his own words, "threw him back on the kingdom of fiction, as if by a species of fatality." Being for some time forbidden to speak or move, he did nothing but read from morning till night, and, by a perusal of old romances, old plays, and epic poetry, was unconsciously amassing materials for his future writings. In his sixteenth year he commenced studying for the bar, and became an apprentice to his father. In 1792 he became an advocate; but he had no taste for the law; and, as his father was in affluent circumstances, he resolved to devote himself to literary pursuits. In 1797 he married Miss Margaret Carpenter, the daughter of a French refugee, and soon after took a house at Lasswade, on the banks of the North Esk. In 1802 appeared his first publication of any note, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, in two volumes, which displayed much curious and abstruse learning, and gained the author considerable reputation as an historical and traditionary poet. In 1803 he came to the final resolution of quitting his profession, observing, "there was no 1 The signet is one of the king's seals used in sealing his private letters and all grants signed under his hand. It is always in the custody of the Secretaries of State. A "Writer to the Signet" is, therefore, one who holds an office in the department of State. 2 So called from a lass who, of old, waded the stream, carrying passengers on her back. great love between us at the beginning, and it pleased Heaven to decrease it on farther acquaintance." In 1805 he published The Lay of the Last Minstrel, which was composed at the rate of a canto per week, and for which he obtained six hundred pounds. In 1808 appeared his Marmion, which he solá for one thousand pounds, the extraordinary success of which induced him, he says, for the first and last time of his life, to feel something approaching to vanity. This was succeeded by an edition of Dryden's works, in eighteen volumes, with notes historical and explanatory, and a life of the author. In 1810 he composed his Lady of the Lake, which had extraordinary success, and which has been characterized by some as the finest specimen of his poetical genius. Within four years after this appeared his Vision of Don Roderick, Rokeby, and The Lord of the Isles. These, however, did not meet with the success which attended his former poems. Determined to continue his literary career, he resolved to try his powers in the composition of fictitious prose writings, and in 1814 appeared Waverley, or 'Tis Sixty Years Since, a tale of the rebellion of 1745. Though the name of its distinguished author was not attached to it, it soon rose to great popularity. He had now fairly entered upon the field in which he earned triumphs even more splendid than those he had gained in the domain of poetry. Waverley was followed within a few years by that brilliant series of prose fictions which made the "Great Unknown," as he was called, the wonder of the age. From 1815 to 1819 appeared, successively, Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, and the first series of the Tales of My Landlord, containing the Black Dwarf and Old Mortality; Rob Roy, and the second series of the Tales of My Landlord, containing The Heart of Mid-Lothian; and the third series, containing The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose. In 18211 appeared Kenilworth, which was succeeded, successively, by The Pirate, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, Tales of the Cru saders, &c. The great success of all these works enabled Scott to carry out the longcherished object of his wishes,-to possess a large baronial estate. In 1811 he purchased one hundred acres of land on the banks of the Tweed, near Melrose, for four thousand pounds, "and the interesting and now immortal name of Abbotsford was substituted for the very ordinary one of Cartley Hole." Other purchases of land followed to a great extent, which, together with the noble mansion, cost more than fifty thousand pounds. In this princely residence the poet received for years, and entertained with bounteous hospitality, innumerable visitors,-princes, peers, and poets, - men of all ranks and grades. In the mean time, he entered into partnership with his old schoolfellow, James Ballantyne, then rising into extensive business as a printer in Edinburgh. The copartnership was kept a secret, and, to all appearance, the house of Ballantyne & Co. was doing a very prosperous business. Little did he dream what sad reverses awaited him,-how soon his all was to be swept |