THE

BY THE

HE day for criticising the productions of this great and fertile author has gone by, except when perhaps he may mistake his powers upon a subject, and fall short of his own high standard. As this however has not happened in the present instance, we are happily absolved from that sort of official task which is no less disagreea ble to reviewers than to writers. This Tale is not unworthy of the author of Waverley.

Redgauntlet is the name the author has chosen to give to an old Scottish family, whose head was a supporter of the Rebellion of 1745; and for this lost his head at Carlisle, as many others did for love of the name of Stuart. The story is laid somewhere about 1765 to 7, when the Pretender was

supposed to be framing fresh plots in this country to regain his grandfather's crown; indeed his personal presence in Great Britain about that time is now matter of history. In order to form

his story, the author has brought upon the stage a greater diversity of character than in any of his later productions, and has connected the general course of his tale with historical allusions and recollections. The early part of the narrative gives one of the best "auld warld stories" which his pen has produced; indeed, it constitutes the germ, 'as it were, of the fabric he is about to raise. This diablerie, if it may be so termed, is introduced by a blind fiddler named Wandering Willie, who is drawn in the author's best manner after Wilkie.

The next, and perhaps the most delightful character in the Novel, is a poor daft body named Peter Peebles, long well known in the Parliament House (Anglice the Westminster Hall of Edinburgh,) as an unsuccessful litigant in a suit which turned poor Peter's brain; and since David Gellatly, the author has not painted any bewildered brain in such charming relief. These are two of the low characters; another of the same class is Nanty Ewart, the skipper of a smuggling cutter, who is done to the life,

coarsish a little, but a picture of the true cabinet cut. The great character of the piece, and the most powerfully sustained, is Mr. Herries, of Birrenswork. He is the great plotter, the prime mover of every thing; but it would be acting unkindly to our readers to anticipate the story more in describing him, than to give them the motto to Redgauntlet :

Master, go on; and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.

Were we to say to which of its predecessors we should compare Redgauntlet, our judgment would fix on Guy Mannering. The story possesses nearly the same degree of interest for those who may read fictitious narratives chiefly for that quality; and its many characters are equally well drawn throughout, true to nature, and affecting in their various bearings the progress and development of the story.— The winding up is indeed admirably fiddler; the crazy litigant, Peter Peedramatic in this respect :-The blind the reckless smuggler, Nanty; Redbles; the passive quaker, Geddes ;gauntlet's base follower, Nixon; and the imp, Benjie; being all employed in bringing about the catastrophe in a including Charles Stuart, Redgauntlet manner so skilful,that the upper agents, and his other adherents, and every principal personage who figures in the tale, are borne along by the force of the circumstances they produce, and are placed by them in situations which utterly control their own determinations and actions.

But Redgauntlet farther engrafts a beauty unknown even to the popular novel to which we have compared itthe history of the times and the fiction we allude to the masterly way in which are made to chime in with and help inferior to Waverley itself. And the each other. In this respect it is hardly

*It is in our regard for such of our readers that we have sedulously avoided any rally, we find a good course in noticing analysis of the story in this Review; geneworks of the same class.-Ed.

:

could be constructed so as to rest chief. ly upon two pillars. But this is a mistake for PLINY mentions two theatres built by C. Curio, (who was killed in the civil wars, on Cæsar's side,) which were made of wood, and so extensive as, according to his mode of writing, to hold all the Roman people. They were contrived with such art that each of them depended upon one hinge. This caused Pliny to censure the madness of the people who would venture into a place for their pleasure, where they sat on such an uncertain and unstable seat: for if that hinge had given way, there had been a great

THE SMOOTH STONES SELECTED

I. SAMUEL, xvii. 40. "And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook."

"The chapel belonging to the convent is built over that part of the house where John Baptist is said to have been born and the village itself stands on the mountain occupied by the Israelites when the Philistines from the neighbouring mountains to the westward defied the armies of the living God. The

er slaughter than at the battle of Cannæ.-This surely removes every thing like difficulty from the Scriptural account alluded to above.

Sir Christopher Wren, whose opinion upon such a subject will be considered as important, feels no hesitation in admitting the fact, and even gives us the form of a building which might be so constructed as to rest entirely upon two pillars. He then concludes with the following remark. "Now, if Samson, by his miraculous strength, pressing upon one of these pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall."

SAINT COLUMBA.

SOON after Saint Columba established his residence in lona, tradition says that he paid a visit to a great seminary of druids, then in the vicinity, at a place now called Camusnan Ceul, or Bay of Cells, in the district of Ardnamurchan. Several remains of Druidical circles are still to be seen there, and on that Bay and the neighbourhood many places are still named after their rites and ceremonies; such as Ardintibert, the Mount of Sacrifice, and others. The fame of the Saint had been for sometime well known to the people, and his intention of instructing them in the doctrines of Christianity was announced to them. The ancient priesthood made every exertion to dissuade the inhabitants from hearing the powerful eloquence of Columba displayed, and in this they were seconded

by the principal man then in that country, whose name was Donald, the son of Connal.

The Saint had no sooner made his appearance, however, than he surrounded with a vast multitude, anxious to hear so celebrated a preacher; and after the sermon was ended, many persons expressed a desire to be baptized, in spite of the remonstrances of the Druids. Columba had made choice of an eminence centrally situated for performing worship; but there was no water near the spot, and the son of Connal threatened with punishment any who should dare to procure it for his purpose. The Saint stood with his back leaning on a rock; after a short prayer, he struck the rock with his foot, and a stream of water issued forth in great abundance. The miracle had a powerful effect on the minds

of his hearers, and many became converts to the new religion. This fountain is still distinguished by the name of Columba, and is considered of superior efficacy in the cure of diseases.— When the Catholic form of worship prevailed in that country, it was greatly resorted to, and old persons yet remember to have seen offerings left at the fountain, in gratitude for benefits received from the benignant influence of the Saint's blessing on its water.At length, it is said, that a daughter of Donald the son of Connal expressed a wish to be baptized, and the father restrained her by violence. He also, with the aid of the druids, forced Columba to take refuge in his boat, and the holy man departed for Iona, after warning the unhospitable Caledonian to prepare for another world, as his life would

soon terminate.

The Saint was at sea during the whole night, which was stormy; and when approaching the shores of his own sacred island the following morning, a vast number of ravens were observed flying over the sea, chasing another of extraordinary large size. The croaking of the ravens awoke the Saint, who had been sleeping; and he instantly exclaimed that the son of Connal had just expired, which was afterwards ascertained to be true.

A very large Christian establishment appears to have been afterwards formed in the Bay of Cells; and the remains of a chapel dedicated to Saint Kiaran, are still to be seen there. It is the favourite place of interment among the Catholics at this day. Indeed, Columba and many of his successors seem to have adopted the policy of engrafting their institutions on those which had former ly existed in the country. Of this there are innumerable instances, at least we observe the ruins of both still visible in many places; even in lona we find the burying ground of the Druids known at the present day. This practice may bave had advantages at the time, but it must have been ultimately productive of many corruptions; and, in a great measure, accounts for the many super stitions and absurd customs which prevailed among that people to a very recent period, and which are not yet en

tirely extinct. In a very ancient family in that country, two round balls of coarse glass have been carefully preserved from time immemorial, and to these have been ascribed many virtues; among others, the core of any extraor dinary disease among cattle. The balls were immersed in cold water for three days and nights, and that water was afterwards sprinkled over all the cattle; this was expected to cure those affected, and to prevent the disease in the rest. From the names and appearance of these balls, there is no doubt that they had been symbols used by the Archdruids.

Within a short distance of the Bay of Cells there is a cave very remarka ble in its appearance, and still more so from the purposes to which it has been appropriated. Saint Columba, on one of his many voyages among the Hebrides, was benighted on this rocky coast, and the mariners were alarmed for their own safety. The Saint assured them that neither he nor his crew would ever be drowned. They unexpectedly discovered a light at no great distance, and to that they directed their course. Columba's boat consisted of a frame of osiers, which was covered with hides of leather, and it was received into a very narrow creek close to this cave.After returning thanks for their escape, the Saint and his people had great difficulty in climbing up to the cave,which is elevated considerably above sea.They at length got sight of the fire which first had attracted their attention. Several persons sat around it, and their appearance was not much calculated to please the holy man. Their aspects were very fierce, and they had on the fire some flesh roasting over the coals. The Saint gave them his benediction ; and he was invited to sit down among them and to share their hurried repast, with which he gladly complied. They were freebooters who lived by plunder and robbery; and this Columba soon discovered. He advised them to forsake that course, and to be converted to his doctrines, to which they all assented, and in the morning they accompanied the Saint on his voyage homeward. This circumstance created a high veneration for the cave

among the disciples and successors of Columba, and that veneration still continues in some degree. In one side of it there was a cleft of the rock, where lay the water with which the freebooters had been baptized; and this was afterwards formed by art into a basin,which is supplied with water by drops from the roof of the cave. It is alleged never to be empty or to overflow, and the most salubrious qualities are ascribed to it. To obtain the benefit of it, however, the votaries must undergo a very severe ordeal. They must be in the cave before day-light, and they are to be stript naked; they stand on the spot where the Saint first landed from his boat, and nine waves must dash

over their heads; they must afterwards pass through nine openings in the walls of the cave; and, lastly, they must swallow nine mouthfuls out of the holy basin. After invoking the aid of the Saint, the votaries are then clothed,and within three weeks they are to be relieved by death or by recovery. Offerings are left in a certain place appropriated for that purpose; and these are sometimes of considerable value, nor are they ever abstracted. Strangers are always informed, that a young man, who had wantonly taken away some of these not many years since, had broken his leg before he got home, and this affords the property of the Saint ample protection.

habit from that on which our forefathers dwelt! The antediluvian world, strode over by mammoths, preyed upon by the megatherion, and peopled by the offspring of the Sons of God, is a better type of the earth of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato, than the hedged-in cornfields and measured hills of the present day. The globe was then encircled by a wall which paled in the bodies of men, whilst their feathered thoughts soared over the boundary; it had a brink, and in the deep profound which it overhung, men's imaginations, eagle-winged, dived and flew, and brought home strange tales to their believing auditors. Deep caverns harboured giants; cloud-like birds cast their shadows upon the plains; while far out at sea lay islands of bliss, the fair paradise of Atlantis or El Dorado sparkling with untold jewels. Where are they now? The Fortunate Isles have lost the glory that spread a halo round them; for who deems himself nearer to the golden age, because he touches at the Canaries on his voyage to India? Our only riddle is the rise of the Niger; the in

incognita; and our sole mare incognitum, the north-west passage. But these are tame wonders, lions in leash ; we do not invest Mungo Park, or the Captain of the Hecla, with divine attributes; no one fancies that the waters of the unknown river bubble up from hell's fountains, no strange and weird power is supposed to guide the ice-berg, nor do we fable that a stray pick-pocket from Botany Bay has found the gardens of the Hesperides within the circuit of the Blue Mountains. What have we left to dream about? The clouds are no longer the charioted servants of the sun, nor does he any more bathe his glowing brow in the bath of Thetis; the rainbow has ceased to be the messenger of the gods, and thunder is no longer their awful voice, warning man of that which is to come. We have the sun which has been weighed and measur ed, but not understood; we have the assemblage of the planets, the congregation of the stars, and the yet unshackled ministration of the winds :such is the list of our ignorance.

Nor is the empire of the imagination