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honoured even the echoes of the Tyrol. I understand that the music of the synagogue is very fine, though I unfortunately had not an opportunity of hearing it.

With regard to the dress and general appearance of the inhabitants, such of the higher classes as I have seen are very similar to the Scotch and English. The head-dress of the ladies, however, is usually more highly ornamented, and seems to partake in some measure of the French fashion.

During my short stay here, I took a walk into the country, and was amply repaid for my trouble by the amusement which it afforded me. The appearance of the middle and lower ranks, particularly at some distance from any considerable town, is entertaining beyond all description. The sight of any little girl of six or seven years old, attired in her Sunday's costume, is quite sufficient to excite one's laughter for a month. She moves within the massy folds of some apparently antiquated gown, and beneath the far-spreading brims of a prodigious straw bonnet, with the grave deportment of a woman of seventy years of age; and with this appearance every look and every gesture corresponds. During a short excursion in one of the Dutch stage-coaches, many of which are furnished with three rows of seats in the interior, I found myself seated behind a venerable old lady, who seemed so far declined into the vale of years, that she was obliged to hold the arm of an elderly domestic who sat beside her. On arriving at our destination, I of course offered my arm to assist her feeble and emaciated frame in descending from the vehicle. My attention was first excited by the infantine beauty of the little hand which was presented to me; and you may judge of my surprise, when, on raising my head, instead of the wrinkled visage of a superannuated woman, I beheld the smiling countenance of a rosy child, with bright blue eyes and beautiful flaxen hair.

The head-dress certainly forms the most singular part of a Dutch countrywoman's attire. This is, for the most part, not inelegant, and is frequently very rich and costly. It consists of different substances, and variously shaped and modified, according to the taste of the individual. Having never attempted the description of a female

dress, I fear I shall be guilty of many mistakes and inaccuracies, if I commence with so difficult and unaccustomed an object. Nevertheless, with the full conviction that what I am now writing will never fall into the hands of any Dutch lady, who, severe in youthful and rotund beauty, might expose my ignorance to the world, I shall briefly state my ideas on the subject. In the first place, then, I am of opinion, that immediately upon the head there is a small hood or cap, probably made of linen and bordered with broad lace, which lies close upon the forehead, and depends upon the back of the neck, where it is fastened by means of a small curl, or twist of the hair, and gold bodkins. The most characteristic feature of this head-dress, however, consists of a broad-semicircular piece of gold, which embraces the hinder part of the head, and terminates in golden knobs or plates, of about the size of a halfpenny, at both temples. Near the ear, this singular appendage is deflected for an inch or two, and at the extremity of this deflexion there are usually suspended large and richly worked ear-rings, of gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, &c. varying in splendour and magnificence according to the wealth and importance of the bearer. Such parts of the head as are not secured by this metallic covering, are adorned with patches of black or coloured silks; and over the whole there is imposed a cap of lace and cambric, beautifully intermingled, through the interstices and open stitching of which, the golden ornament and coloured substances which border it are distinctly visible. Sometimes, instead of the golden plates over each temple, there are black patches of a substance resembling leather, but of the nature of these I do not mean at present to hazard a decided opinion. Besides what I have stated, there are, no doubt, many accessories of lesser import, but what I have detailed are the more prominent and striking cha

racters.

In regard to the golden ornament before mentioned, the vulgar proverb must be kept in mind, that it is not all gold which glitters. That piece of dress, among the poorer people, is either gilt, or made of silver. The wealthier classes, however, have it of fine gold, sometimes richly carved and ornamented with precious stones.

When very handsome, it is handed down from father to son during a long period of years, and is looked upon as an heir-loom in the family.

I have been only once in church during the time of service since my arrival in this country, and was much edified by an excellent Dutch sermon. The church was handsome, and contained a magnificent organ, the tone of which, I do not doubt, was very fine; but as each member of the congregation sung a most vociferous and openmouthed accompaniment, my sense of hearing was completely deadened during the performance, in so far as concerned the perception of more delicate sounds. Among other ornaments which surrounded the organ, there were a number of little angels playing the fiddle, apparently in a very masterly style. In the few churches which I have seen, there are scarcely any pews, but each flag-stone of the floor is numbered, and as there are abundance of chairs, each person places one on his own particular number. As soon as the first psalm ceases, and the sermon has commenced, each man and boy places his hat on his head, and sits at his ease, at least so it was in the church which I visited.

I did not observe any one smoking in church, but in the streets and highways, all the men, and a few of the women, have their pipes constantly in their mouths. I have seen a little boy, about ten or twelve years of age, with a long black coat, silk breeches, his hands in the pockets of the same, silver shoe-buckles, a tobacco-pipe in his mouth, and the whole crowned by a huge three-cornered cocked hat, under which the youth moved with a gravity of demeanour becoming his great-grandfather.

I believe the general appearance of Holland is pretty similar throughout. What I have seen has a cheerful and pleasing aspect, though, from the want of hills and vallies, it would probably soon become uninteresting. The whole country seems composed of meadows, intersected by canals, and subdivided by ditches and rows of trees. The rivers are slow and heavy in their motions, and partake much of the nature of the canals and ditches. The water is bad; but as good claret can be got for two shillings, and there is abundance of excellent milk, this loss is not

so perceptible. Notwithstanding the abundance of milk, they rarely gather any cream, at least not for daily use. It seems to be collected chiefly with a view to the formation of super-excellent cheese.

I was much delighted by the picturesque groups of the peasant girls, who assemble to milk the cattle in particular quarters of the meadows, called milking-places, or melk-plaats. Such scenes forcibly reminded me of the inimitable productions of Paul Potter, and were well worthy the efforts of that great master.

In the suburbs of Rotterdam there are a number of small gardens, in most of which are erected wooden houses, of fanciful shapes and many colours, not unlike the gay habitations of Chinese mandarins. In these houses the richer class of merchants, with their wives and families, drink tea in the summer evenings, particularly on the Sundays. The windows reach from the roof to the floor, and are for the most part open, so that the passing traveller has a clear view of the interior of the building, and of its inhabitants. Such parties as I have seen in the evenings, appeared to be solely employed in drinking tea, a meal from which they must derive much pleasure, if one may judge from the time which they take to it. Even in the streets, there is generally a tea party visible in at least one window of every house, and before many doors, in a fine afternoon, there is a party seated on the steps. This is more particularly the case in country towns; the men, however, in all places, still retaining their long tobacco pipes in their mouths.

With regard to the mode of travelling in Holland, I may next say a few words: Post carriages, I understand, may be everywhere obtained, but as in wet weather, particularly during spring and autumn, many of the roads are impassable, such a mode of proceeding, independent of the great increase of expense and trouble which it occasions, is by no means adviseable. In no country of the world, however, is there such easy and regular conveyance by water as in this, on which account I would advise all tourists to travel exclusively by the canals.

Upon inquiry, I find, that in every town there are a number of large boats

A

TO THE PRESES OF THE GAELIC SO-
CIETY, EDINBURGH, RESPECTING
THE COMPILATION OF A GAELIC

DICTIONARY.

us by Mr Campbell, editor of "Albyn's [The following letter has been handed to Anthology," in whose possession the ori ginal has been for many years, and who has also furnished us with the additional infor

mation contained in the notes to the letter.

Authentic intelligence respecting the history of Gaelic literature will always be acceptable to us, and at the present moment can scarcely fail to be interesting to many of our readers, who are looking forward with eager anxiety to the publication of the Gaelic Dictionary now compiling under the auspices of the Highland Society of Scotland. The ac complishment of this desirable and oftendefeated object, will be one of the many im portant public services performed by that highly respectable and patriotic body. We give one short extract from the papers they regret that our limits will only permit us to have printed, respecting the plan of the work and the progress that has been made in it. This we subjoin, along with a memorandum on Dr M Lagan's letter, (Notes A, B,) with which we have been obligingly furnished by a gentleman who has the very best access to authentic information in whatever relates to the history of Gaelic literature,

or vessels, called treck-schuits (treck- LETTER FROM THE LATE DR MʻLAGAN schuiten), some of which start every hour, and in all directions, and convey goods, parcels, and passengers, from place to place. These vessels, of which I have now seen many in this town, may be described as large open boats, containing wooden cottages of about thirty feet long and six feet wide, with flat roofs, on which the passengers may walk in fine weather. They are placed in, and form a part of the boat itself, and are divided by a partition into two parts. The interior division, which is by much the largest, is called the ruim. It contains the goods and baggage, and in it, as it is cheaper, the greater number of passengers take their seats. The smaller apartment, which is next the stern of the vessel, is called the roef. It is neatly fitted up, with a table in the centre, and cushions around the sides, and in it the quality are usually conveyed. It contains eight people, is furnished with one or two windows on each side, and in some a draft-board is painted on the table. In the event of one or two persons engaging the whole seats in the roef, it is only necessary to pay one-half of the price. The ruim, I should suppose, may contain upwards of thirty people. These boats travel at the rate of one league per hour, or rather more; and the expense, including baggage, cannot much exceed a penny a mile. They are drawn by a horse, in the manner of our own canal boats, but the rope is fastened to the top of a small moveable mast, placed near the bow of the vessel. The cottage-shaped building before mentioned, does not extend the entire length of the treck-schuit, but both before and behind it there is an open space, in the former of which is placed a person who lowers the mast and unties the rope on passing other vessels, or under bridges; and the latter is appropriated to the helmsman, and such of the passengers as may prefer it to the roef or cabin.

Although the feelings of a merchant may no doubt be both acute and delightful in this most mercantile city, yet, upon the whole, there is not much to excite the attention, or to gratify the curiosity of a lounger.

If the weather is fine, I shall there fore start for Leyden to-morrow. X. Y. Z.

(To be continued.)

be inclined to regard this subject as one of
In case any of our southern readers should
trifling importance, and our attention to it
as a strong trait of nationality, we shall take
the liberty to quote the opinion expressed
by Dr Samuel Johnson, when the scheme
of translating the Scriptures into Gaelic was
strongly opposed by some individuals, from
political considerations of the disadvantages
of keeping up the distinctions between the
the island.
Highlanders and the other inhabitants of
"I am not very willing that
any language should be totally extinguished.
The similitude and derivation of languages
afford the most indubitable proof of the tra
duction of nations and the genealogy of
mankind. They add often physical cer-
tainty to historical evidence; and often sup-
ply the only evidence of ancient migrations,
written monuments behind them."*]
and of the revolutions of ages which left no

Belfast, Feb. 27th 1771.
DEAR SIR,

YOUR letter of 25th ultimo I was lately honoured with. I am sorry that my knowledge of the Gaelic language does not by any means come up to the notions you seem to entertain of it,

*See Letter to Mr W. Drummond, dated 1766; Boswell's Life, vol. ii. p. 142.

any more than to my own wishes; and one reason for my rejoicing at your laudable and useful undertaking, of compiling a dictionary and grammar of our mother tongue, was, that it would add to my knowledge of it. I am happy to see in the Messrs Macphersons and you, men who are not ashamed to own their native country or language, like the most of us, who, as soon as we know any thing of any other language or people, endeavour to recommend ourselves to them by denying the knowledge of, or running down, our own; because, forsooth, some of these strangers are modest and good-natured enough to do it, when, at the same time, their ignorance in these matters renders it impossible, in the nature of things, that they should be capable of judging. I often blushed, when I considered, that none of our learned, two or three excepted, ever had the public spirit to collect the roots of our language into a dictionary, or polish it, any more than our great men to patronise them; when not only Ireland and Wales, but even Cornwall, Bas-Breton, and Biscay, had several dictionaries of their dialects. Now, however, I hope to see something done to our dialect of the first language of south and west Europe, like what M. Bullet has done to the foreign dialects of it, and that future historians and antiquaries will reap from that original language and its descriptive names, &c. as well as philologists from what other languages now spoke, as well as the Latin, have borrowed from it, a light, pleasure, and advantage, they have as yet no notion of, if they choose it. If this is not done soon, our language will become as great a mystery as the religion of the Druids, particularly the names of places and other things, of which they were descriptions as well as

names.

But you have not writ for an encomium upon the language, but for materials; and I am sorry that my absence from the country where it is spoke puts it out of my power to be of much service to you in that way. Did I indeed reside in it, my zeal would probably prompt me to catch as much as I could; but in my present situation, I am as like to lose of what I have, as to add any thing to my know ledge of it..

I make no doubt but my keenness

may have led me into indiscretion already, in telling some of your society my mind upon the subject, when it was neither asked nor necessary, perhaps; but this you must attribute to my love to the subject, and my desire to inflame their zeal. To this too you must ascribe, what I am now to beg of you, namely, that you would make your plan as extensive as possible, and prosecute it with the utmost vigour, while the nation seems to be in some humour for relishing things of this nature, as well as you are to undertake it; for if any person or consideration whatever induce you to drop it now, as M'Colm* did, it is a thousand to one if it is resumed before it is too late, if at all. I wish too you could get some persons of rank and influence to patronize the undertaking, that you may be enabled to procure all the books upon the subject, and more especially to send some of your best hands to every corner of Scotland where that language is spoke, and to the Isle of Man, the language of which is a dialect of the Scots Galic, with very little mixture, beyond controversy, and nearest allied to that spoke on the con fines of the Lowlands; which you may see demonstrated by a book, entitled, "The Principles and Duties of Christianity," published by the late bishop of Sodor and Man, Manks and English; only they have not followed our orthography, I suppose, because they did not know the languages to be almost the same, and they pronounce differently. Books throw light upon the living language, and vice versa. But what is already in books, particularly in dictionaries, is not so abso lutely necessary, or so much your peculiar province, as the first undertakers of this kind in Scotland, as what never was; and that is a very great part of the Scots dialect or the Galic; though, at the same time, the performance should be complete, by collecting the whole, though common to us, with others, and published by them. But should the world still retain so much prejudice that you can't have such pa trons, I intreat you to persist still;

Mr Malcolm, minister of Dudding ston, near Edinburgh. He published small glossary of the Scoto-Gaelic, and made a strenuous attempt to prove that the Latin language is chiefly derived from the Erse. See Reliquiæ Galeancæ, p. 240, &c.

for I make not the least doubt but the thing will take in general. I beg also (and I think myself sure you will grant my request, and that is), that you will not reject any word that is of Celtic origin, however bad the dialect of the place wherein it is used; for it may be of vast use, as being the branch of a root, or the root of a branch, still retained in other dialects of the Celtic, though lost by us, and throwing light, when the whole is compared, the one word or dialect upon the other. When you compile your English-Galic dictionary, you may use what you reckon best first; but the Galic-English dictionary, should contain every Celtic word that is or ever was used in Scotland, that can be procured, and even any words of other Celtic dialects you can meet with, if forgot by their best glossographers; only let them have the mark of their extraction, or the author from whom they are taken, as indeed they should have it in the different shires of Scotland.

As to the best helps I know in print, I have last year sent a catalogue of them to Mr M'Nicol in Lismore* (who first told me of your design), in order to be sent to you. The greatest part of them I took from Bullet's Celtic dictionary, which, if you have it, will save you the trouble of looking for many of the rest. I have added several books he does not mention, but have omitted the book already mentioned here, and Mr Robert Kirk'st version of the psalm's. If Mr M'Nicol refuse to send you it, you shall have another copy, if necessary.

With respect to correspondents, it is absolutely necessary to have them wherever the language is spoke, as no small number of men can know the whole of it; and to this space the circle of my acquaintance is very small. Were I to tell you where the best Galic is spoke, I would perhaps men

This gentleman died a few years ago. He rendered himself at one time conspicuous by a severe and somewhat rash attack upon the great English lexicographer.

He was minister of Aberfoyle, and was a man of very considerable learning. He prepared for the press the Irish-Gaelic Bible known by the name of " Bishop Redel's Bible," which was printed in what is called the Irish character. A curious tract of Kirk's, on the superstitions of the Gael, has been lately printed from his MS. in the Advocate's Library.

tion Clan-Ranald's estate;* but to you, all that is real Galic must be good. Whether the clergy are all in the use of writing the language, or will choose to undertake any thing, you must try : some, I dare say, will, when properly applied to; and they may be met with at assemblies in Edinburgh from all parts. I have spoke of it to some of them. The abilities of Messrs M'Nicol and Mr Archibald M'Arthur, many of you know as well as I. On my last journey and voyage, I saw the ministers of Campbelton, Mr Neil M'Leod, Mull, three Mr M'Aulay's, brothers, the eldest at Inverary, and the next in Ardnamorchan, all good hands also Mr Donald M'Queen in Trotternish, Sky, Mr Charles Stewart, (a writer), near Fort William, and heard of M'Intyre of Gleno,† all three excellent hands, as Mr Wodrow in Isla, I suppose, would also be. I forgot also to mention Mr Martin M'Pherson, Slate,§ who, with his own knowledge, may have some of his father's lucubrations that have not been published.

All the ministers in the Long Island have a fine opportunity, if they choose to apply. The only one I know in Lewis is Mr Wilson, who learned it grammatically, and is very obliging, as indeed I found also Mr Angus Beaton in Harris, Mr Allan M'Queen, North Uist, in whose neighbourhood is Mr Neil M'Aulay, master of the Schola Illustris, the poet M'Codrum,|| and a brother of his own writes it

* Clanranald's estate comprehends a considerable extent of the Mainland on the north-west part of Argyleshire, besides a large portion of that chain of isles called the Long Island, Isle of Canna, &c. This widely extended property is said to contain a population of between 11,000 and 12,000 souls, most of whom are Papists.

Intyre, left behind him a curious collection + Gleno, the late chief of the clan Macof Gaelic poems, which, it is believed, is still extant.

Mr Wodrow published, in 1769, some translations in English verse, of poems from M'Pherson's Ossian.

§ Son of the well-known author of the Dissertation on Gaelic Antiquities.

The poet M'Codrum was somewhat advanced in life before he discovered his poetic vein. In the report of the committee of the Highland Society of Scotland on the authenticity of Ossian's poems, (Append. p. 95.) is recorded a sarcastic reply of his to James McPherson, the celebrated translator of Ossian.

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