Who was meant by Samuel, John, James, and George, I cannot say-the allusions are so entirely personal and local. David was Mr. Brydges, a cloth merchant in the Old Town, who was a very good judge of pictures, and had made a fine collection.-M.

+ The two Andrew Duncans, father and son, were eminent physicians in Edinburgh at this time. The younger was author or compiler of "The Edinburgh Dispensatory."-M.

This was Samuel Anderson, high among the Freemasons of Scotland. He was a winemerchant, but, in Brougham's Chancellorship, received the lucrative appointment of Registrar of the English Court of Chancery. He figures in "The Nootes," as one of North's guests.-M. John Jeffrey, younger brother of the critic.-M.

I Nobody knew who "the seven young men " were. They are often mentioned through the Magazine, and at "The Noctes," but there is no clue to their identity-if any.-M.

Christopher in the Tent.

E

No. I.-AUGUST, 1819.

We have just returned from the Moors;* and as many erroneous reports of our proceedings must doubtlessly have been put into circulation, we do not see how we can do better than fill our last sheet with an account of our shooting excursion. Sir John Sinclair remarks, that he has a more numerous family than generally falls to the lot of literary men.t Now, though we can boast of no such achievements, being to a man bachelors, yet we really believe that for literati we are most extraordinary shots—and we hereby challenge all Scotland for a dinner at Young's, and a hundred pounds to the erection of the National Monument.

Immediately after the publication of our last number, an unusual stir and bustle was observable among the members of our conclave. At our monthly dinner at Ambrose's, the conversation could not be confined within its wonted channel-and a continual fire was kept up, blazing away right and left, much to the astonishment of our worthy

*The first part of this article, entituled "The true and authentic Account of the Twelfth of August, 1819," was the concluding paper in No. XXXIX of Blackwood's Magazine. It is curious to find how early Wilson took up the idea (carried out to the last in his Dies Boreales, or Christopher under Canvas") of holding colloquies in a Tent. It may be necessary to add, in explanation of a particular day and month being singled out, that by the British game laws, grouse shooting does not commence until the 12th August, partridge shooting on 1st September, and pheasant shooting on the 1st October, in each year.-M.

Sir John Sinclair, the greatest rural economist, perhaps (because the most practical), that Great Britain can boast of, was partly author and wholly editor of the Statistical Account of Scotland, the most minute account of a kingdom ever published. His writings on agricultural and financial science, extending over sixty years (he died, aged 82, in 1835), were distinguished for their good sense. His family was numerous-thirteen children surviving him. In his Hints on Longevity, he mentions one fact as the result of his inquiries among aged peoplethat, whether they went to bed sober or drunk, at early even-tide, or long past the small hours, all the long-lived persons whom he knew, male or female, had invariably been early risers.-M. Young's Tavern, in High-street, Edinburgh. The locale was by no means a pleasant one, but most of the young wits of the city, including the Society called the Dilettanti, used to frequent it. The Dilettanti, in 1819, had John Wilson for their president, and among the members were Allan, Schetky, Nicholson and Baxter, artists; Lockhart, Peter Robertson, now a Scottish Judge, and many more, then in early manhood, who have since attained eminence. Young's was such a small, smoky, dingy place, that it was commonly called "The CoffinHole. Lockhart denounced it, in "Peters' Letters," as "situated in one of the filthiest closes in the city of Edinburgh," where visitors had to "brave with heroic courage the risk of an impure baptism from the neighboring windows." What is called the National Monument stands on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, and is an unfortunate attempt to imitate the Parthenon of Athens. It is unfinished. The part erected consists of thirteen columns, on the west side, each of which cost £1,000. They were put up between 1824 and 1830, and are not deficient in picturesque grace. The object of the monument was to commemorate those Scotchmen who had fallen in battle during the war with Napoleon.-M.

publisher, who generally graces by his presence these orgies. Not a word was uttered about "Articles." Don (for the time) silently sent to the devil*-cold water was t a moment on all the Lake Poets-and a motion was put chair, and carried by acclamation, that the first man who sm shop should undergo a tumbler of salt and small beer. was astonished!!!

About midnight it was decided, that a letter should be wi the editor to Lord Fife, requesting a week's shooting for hin the eight principal supporters of Blackwood's Magazine, with sion to pitch a Tent on the Twelfth on his Lordship's moor head of the Dee. As from his Lordship's well-known liber doubt could be felt on that score, it was resolved, that we sl meet on the evening of the 11th at Braemar, whither our assistants should be sent a day or two previous, that all mig good order on our arrival. A letter was also written to D Morris of Aberystwith, and Mr. Jarvie, Saltmarket, Glasgov ing their attendance.

For the next fortnight, all was preparation. If a Con showed his face in No. 17, Prince's Street, it was but for a and "with a short uneasy motion," that proved "he had no there." Our visits were indeed like those of angels, "few between." Before the end of the month, Mr. Wastle ente shop, like an apparition, in a pair of old buckskin breeches fu up for the nonce-leather gaiters, in which his spindle-shanks peculiarly gentlemanly-and a jean jacket, with pockets without number," and of all sizes-the main inside one, mouth of a sack, and cunningly intended to stow away roe young of the red deer. Tickler was excellent. A man of

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*The two opening cantos of Don Juan, which did "fright the isle from its propr peared in July, 1819. Murray, who had purchased them, was afraid to let his name the title-page, as publisher, and only the printer's name ("Thomas Davison, Whitefr placed thereon.-M.

James Duff, Earl of Fife, was a wealthy man in 1819, with vast landed estates, in tish counties of Banff, Moray, and Aberdeen. His principal residence (for he had s cluding two castles) was Duff House, near the town of Banff, only part of which is b plan supplied by Inigo Jones. Lord Fife served with distinction in the Peninsular W a general in the Spanish army, as well as a grandee of Spain. At one time he wa intimate terms with George IV., to whom he lent vast sums, which have never bee The result of this, and of extravagant expenditure on handsome ballet-dancers of house, so nearly ruined him, that he had to retire from high life, to place his estat hands of trustees (in payment of his debts), and to live on £4,000, which they allow h trustees have done several harsh things in his name, one of the most notorious being th caption of the original portrait of Charles the First, painted by Velasquez, at Madrid which formerly belonged to the Earl's father, and had been purchased at a sale by A a bookseller in Reading. The Scottish judges declared that the picture belonged to M who brought it to New York, in 1852, where it now is. All through Blackwood Lor called "The Thane." The source of the Dee (a river famous for its salmon, which run sea by the city of Aberdeen) is near Mar Lodge, on Lord Fife's property.-M.

Dr. Morris was the pseudo-writer of " Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk" (Lockhart's the Whigs of Edinburgh and Glasgow), and Mr. Jarvie (a pretended grandson of Ba Jarvie, of "Rob Roy") had written some sarcastic letters to Maga, as if from Glasgow Blackwood's shop, where Maga was then published.-M.

1819.]

TICKLER-HOGG-ODOHERTY.

3

and a half looks well in a round blue jacket-and if to that you add a white waistcoat with a red spot-a large shirt-ruffle-corduroy breeches very short at the knees-grey worsted stockings of the sort in Scotland called " rig and fur," and laced quarter boots, you unquestionably have before you the figure of a finished Contributor.* The Ettrick Shepherd condescended to show himself in the shop only once between the 20th of last month and the 6th of August, on which occasion, he was arrayed in white raiment from top to toe-his hat being made of partridge feathers, and his shoes of untanned leather. He was accompanied by a couple of very alarming animals, not unapparently of the canine race-one of which commenced an immediate attack on an old harmless Advertiser, while the other began rather unadvisedly to worry the Scotsmant-the consequence of which, as was foreseen, has been hydrophobia, and the brute is now chained up. Mr. Odoherty alone went in his usual way-and could not help smiling at the Editor, who came strutting into the front shop as boldly as his rheumatism would permit, with a dog-whip looking out of his pocket, and a call hung round his neck like a boatswain's whistle. As after a few minutes' confabulation with Ebony, he hobbled off with Daniel's Rural Sports beneath his arm,—it is understood, that Odoherty applied for his situation, alleging that the man would be for ever spoiled as an editor by the mountain-dew of Braemar—and that it was indeed the Edinburgh Review to Constable's Magazine, or Lord Bacon to Macvey Napier, that he would not come to time." But it would be quite endless to describe the appearance of each man in the regiment, before we entered on actual service—so suffice it to say, that it is now the evening of the 11th of August, and that our arrival is anxiously expected at the Inn of Braemar.

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William Wastle, of that Ilk (which means "Wastle of Wastle"), was supplying Maga at this time with a satirical and de omnibus rebus poem, called "The Mad Banker of Amsterdam," in the Don Juan metre. In the second of" Peter's Letters" he is noticed very fully as a living person, with close descriptions of his dress, features, and habits, but was only a creation of the brain-one of the many mystifications of Blackwood's Magazine. He is supposed to have represented Lockhart. Timothy Tickler was an Edinburgh lawyer, named Sym, and was Professor Wilson's maternal uncle.

†The Scotsman, then edited by J. R. McCulloch (the political economist and Edinburgh reviewer, who contended that Absenteeism was not injurious to the country whence it drew immense rents, inasmuch as it did not matter where the money was spent, so that it was disbursed somewhere!) was a newspaper, which was assumed to be the organ of the whig party in Edinburgh. It was heavy, but clever, at that time, and much ridiculed in Maga.-M.

Ensign and Adjutant Morgan Odoherty was the well-known Dr. William Maginn, who contributed largely to Blackwood, from 1818 to 1830, and from that time to his death, in 1842, was the leading contributor to Fraser's Magazine. He was introduced to the Tent by anticipation, as he did not visit Scotland until June, 1821. Maginn was one of the most versatile and fertile writers of modern times.-M.

Braemar is a village in Aberdeen-shire, not far from Loch-na-gar, the mountain celebrated by Byron, in his earliest and his latest poems-Hours of Idleness and Don Juan. He describes it (erroneously) as "the highest mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain," and with eternal snow upon its summit. In 1838-39 I ascended this mountain repeatedly, and saw no snow. On the summit is a spring of ice-cold water. On a clear day, from this height, may be seen the waters of the Atlantic on the west, and of the German Ocean on the east. From the source of the Dee the ascent is difficult and tedious; but so gradual is the slope from the summit to Braemar that a pony can easily ride it. In this manner Queen Victoria, whose seat of Balmoral is adjacent, reached the top of Loch-na-gar, in 1853.-M.

Notwithstanding our rheumatism, we arrived first at the place of rendezvous, having gone direct to Aberdeen on the top of the mail, and thence, on the dicky of a friend's chariot, to Pannanich Wells, from which we contrived to pad the hoof to Braemar, attended by our old bitch, than which a better never was shot over, but which we now took with us chiefly for companionship-sake. We did not encumber ourselves with a gun, trusting to Mr. Kempferhausen being soon knocked up, and being besides, under the necessity, on the twelfth, of looking over our "Contributors' Box," which Mr. Wastle was good enough to promise to bring in his dog-cart. We had just dined and finished half a mutchkin of whisky-toddy, when, looking out of the window, we beheld beneath us the Ettrick Shepherd, mounted on a tall brown horse with four white feet, and a countenance equally so, who, on our throwing up the window, turned up his large wall-eyes, with a placid expression, that showed at once he was a steed quite above starting, at trifles. The Poet's dog, something between a Newfoundland and a colley, was not equally pacificbut went to work on an old turnspit belonging to the house, which was with difficulty rescued from his jaws.

During this temporary disturbance the sound of wheels was heard, and the Shepherd, running to the gabel-end of the house, exclaimed, "A Morris A Morris !" and there, in good truth, was the worthy Doctor in his shandrydan, with his man John, both looking extremely well, and formidably appointed.* The clock in the kitchen struck six. "Wastle will be here in ten minutes," quoth the Doctor, "if he be a man of his word, as I trow he is." While he spake the sound of a bugle-horn was heard, and in a few minutes up drove Wastle, in high style, in his dog-cart, tandemwise, and making a sweep round the court, he pulled up at the hall-door to an inch. We want nothing but Tickler and Odoherty, cried the Shepherd; and, extraordinary as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that the words were scarcely out of his mouth, when Tickler rose up before us, on a pony under twelve hands, so that he absolutely seemed as if he had been mounted on a velocipede. Behind him came the Standard-bearer, on a white horse, once the property of Marshal Soult, but which fell into the Adjutant's hands on the evening of Albuera's bloody day. He came into

the court-yard, side foremost, under the insidious left heel of his heroic master; and when Odoherty dismounted, it is impossible to tell what life and spirit was struck into the scene and company around from the clanging of his fixed spurs. No symptoms yet of Kempferhausen, Mullion, and Bailie Jarvie, who were to travel to

*Dr. Morris's shandrydan was a high two-wheeled gig, drawn by a single horse, and with a seat for two persons-M.

† Kempferhausen was the name assumed by a contributor who wrote letters from the Lakes, descriptive of Words worth and Southey. Robert Pearce Gillies, whose poem of Childe Alarique obtained more attention than sale, in 1813, was the author of Hora Germanica and Hora Dani