And as Fatsman' and I have some topics for haver, he'll

Be invited, I hope, to meet me and Dame Peverii,

Upon whom, to say nothing of Oury and Anne, you a

Dog shall be deem'd if you fasten your Janua.

Lines,

ADDRESSED TO MONSIEUR ALEXANDRE, THE CELEBRATED VENTRILOQUIST.

1824.

Of yore, in old England, it was not thought good
To carry two visages under one hood;
What should folk say to you? who have faces such
plenty,

That from under one hood, you last night show'd us twenty!

Stand forth, arch deceiver, and tell us in truth,
Are you handsome or ugly, in age or in youth?
Man, woman, or child-a dog or a mouse?
Or are you, at once, each live thing in the house?
Each live thing, did I ask?—each dead implement,
too,

A work-shop in your person,-saw, chisel, and screw!

Above all, are you one individual? I know
You must be at least Alexandre and Co.

But I think you're a troop-an assemblage-a mob,

And that I, as the Sheriff, should take up the job;

And instead of rehearsing your wonders in verse, Must read you the Riot-Act, and bid you disperse.

ABBOTSFORD, 23d April.3

1 Fatsman was one of Mr. James Ballantyne's many aliases. Another (to which Constable mostly adhered) was Mr. "Baskell"-an allusion to the celebrated printer Baskerville.

2" When Monsieur Alexandre, the celebrated ventriloquist, was in Scotland, in 1824, he paid a visit to Abbotsford, where he entertained his distinguished host, and the other visitors, with his unrivalled imitations. Next morning, when he was about to depart, Sir Walter felt a good deal embarrassed as to the sort of acknowledgment he should offer; but at length, resolving that it would probably be most agreeable to the young foreigner to be paid in professional coin, if in any, he stepped aside for a few minutes, and on returning, presented him with this epigram. The reader need hardly be reminded that Sir Walter Scott held the office of Sheriff of the county of Selkirk."-Scotch newspaper, 1930.

The lines, with this date, appeared in the Edinburgh Ana Register of 1824

Epilogue

TO THE DRAMA FOUNDED ON "ST. RONAN'S WELI

1824.

“After the play, the following humorous address (ascribed to an eminent literary character) was spoken with infinite effect by Mr. Mackay in the character of Meg Dodds."-Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 9th June, 1824.

Enter MEG DODDS, encircled by a crowd of unruly
boys, whom a town's-officer is driving off.
THAT'S right, friend-drive the gaitlings back,
And lend yon muckle ane a whack;
Your Embro' bairns are grown a pack,
Sae proud and saucy,
They scarce will let an auld wife walk
Uron your causey.

I've seen the day they would been scaur'a
Wi' the Tolbooth, or wi' the Guard,
Or maybe wud hae some regard
For Jamie Laing—✦
The Water-hole was right weel wared
On sic a gang.

But whar's the gude Tolbooth gane now Whar's the auld Claught, wi' red and blue Whar's Jamie Laing? and whar's John Doo?* And whar's the Weigh-house?"

Deil hae't I see but what is new,

Except the Playhouse !

Yoursells are changed frae head to heel, There's some that gar the causeway reel With clashing hufe and rattling wheel,

And horses canterin', Wha's fathers daunder'd hame as weel Wi' lass and lantern.

4 James Laing was one of the Depute-Clerks of the city Edinburgh, and in his official connection with the Police and the Council-Chamber, his name was a constant terror to evildoers. He died in February, 1806.

The Watch-hole.

The Tolbooth of Edinburgh, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, was pulled down in 1817.

7 The ancient Town Guard. The reduced remnant of this body of police was finally disbanded in 1817.

8 John Doo, or Dhu-a terrific-looking and high-spirited member of the Town Guard, and of whom there is a print by Kay, etched in 1784.

9 The Weigh-House, situated at the head of the West Bow, Lawnmarket, and which had long been looked upon as an encumbrance to the street, was demolished in order to make way for the royal procession to the Castle, which took place on the 22d of August, 1822.

1 Fortune's Tavern-a house on the west side of the Old Stamp-office Close, High Street, and which was, in the early part of the last century, the mansion of the Earl of Eglintoun. -The Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the day held his levees and dinners in this tavern.

2 Hunter's-another once much-frequented tavern, in Writer's Court, Royal Exchange.

$ Bayle's Tavern and Coffeehouse, originally on the North Bridge, east side, afterwards in Shakspeare Square, bat removed to admit of the opening of Waterloo Place. Such was the dignified character of this house, that the waiter always

Weel, sirs, gude'en, and have a care, The bairns mak fun o' Meg nae mair; For gin they do, she tells you fair, And without failzie,

As sure as ever ye sit there,

She'll tell the Bailie

Epilogue.

1824.

THE sages for authority, pray look
Seneca's morals, or the copy-book—
The sages to disparage woman's power,
Say, beauty is a fair, but fading flower;-
I cannot tell-I've small philosophy-
Yet, if it fades, it does not surely die,
But, like the violet, when decayed in bloom,
Survives through many a year in rich perfume.
Witness our theme to-night, two ages gone,

A third wanes fast, since Mary fill'd the throne.
Brief was her bloom, with scarce one sunny day,
"Twixt Pinkie's field and fatal Fotheringay:
But when, while Scottish hearts and blood you
boast,

Shall sympathy with Mary's woes be lost?
O'er Mary's mem'ry the learned quarrel,
By Mary's grave the poet plants his laurel,
Time's echo, old tradition, makes her name
The constant burden of his fault'ring theme;
In each old hall his gray-hair'd heralds tell
Of Mary's picture, and of Mary's cell,
And show-my fingers tingle at the thought-
The loads of tapestry which that poor Queen
wrought,

In vain did fate bestow a double dower
Of ev'ry ill that waits on rank and pow'r,
Of ev'ry ill on beauty that attends-
False ministers, false lovers, and false friends
Spite of three wedlocks so completely curst,
They rose in ill from bad to worse, and worst,
In spite of errors-I dare not say more,
For Duncan Targe lays hand on his claymore.
In spite of all, however, humors vary,
There is a talisman in that word Mary,

appeared in full dress, and rabdy was admitted who had not a white neckcloth-then considered an indispensable insignium of a gentleman

4 Mr. William Murray became manager of the Edinburgh Theatre in 1815.

5 "I recovered the above with some difficulty. I believe it was never spoken, but written for some play, afterwards withdrawn, in which Mrs. H. Siddons was to have spoken it in the character of Queen Mary."-Extract from a Letter of Str Wal's Scott to Mr. Constable, 22 October, 1824.