private interview by the rector's son, George Staunton, an invalid in his chamber. During this interview he confessed that he had caused Effie's ruin. Jeanie soon left Grantham, with a guide to Stamford, and at length safely reached London, where she abode with a friend and relative, Mrs. Glass, a tobacconist at the sign of the Thistle, in the Strand. She soon found her way to Argyle House, residence of John, the great Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, so distinguished in his time, and whose monument is now prominent in the South Transept of Westminster Abbey. Argyle -House, of which little or nothing remains, is said to have been a plain structure that stood across the present Argyle Street, near where it enters Regent Street. There Jeanie obtained a satisfactory interview with her exalted countryman, who afterwards took her to the garden of the Lodge, in the Great Park at Richmond, where she had an audience with Caroline, Queen Consort of George II.,Scott's narration of which, in the thirty-seventh chapter of the novel, cannot well be abridged. This Lodge has been taken down and the grounds are changed, but the surrounding park contains forest and rural scenery seldom surpassed in beauty; and commands that celebrated panoramic prospect over the Thames vale, known as the view from Richmond Hill, one of the most lovely simply rural landscapes in the world. The result of these audiences, with Queen and Peer, was that Jeanie in due time received assurance from the Duke himself, that Effie's pardon had been transmitted to Edinburgh. Thither she herself was despatched, in company with certain of his servants, and there she witnessed the execution of the old gypsy woman Meg; and, in a hospital, had an interview with Madge, who died soon afterwards, but without giving any additional clew to the fate of Effie's child.

If one's position, while reviewing the scenes of this novel, is still supposed to be upon Salisbury Crags, one may there, after following in imagination the route of Jeanie to London, also recall the remaining scenery of the story, since it is so scattered, that all of it cannot well be visited connectedly. Effie, liberated by the pardon, revisited her father's house, but soon disappeared from it. Butler became ordained minister of Knocktarlitie, at the head of Gare Loch, one of the beautiful and picturesque salt-water lochs easily accessible down the Clyde from Glasgow. At Knocktarlitie he married Jeanie Deans, and there they lived and were visited by the Duke of Argyle, one of whose family seats, Roseneath, was, and

is, upon the shore of the loch. The Duke then incidentally spoke of a Lady Staunton, in London, as “the ruling belle — the blazing star- the universal toast of the winter." Afterward, Jeanie met with a confession, by old Meg, declaring that Effie's son was not killed. Sending the confession to her sister, she received a visit from this same brilliant Lady Staunton, and Sir George Staunton, persons who proved to be her sister, and the father of her sister's child. He had married Effie, and, changing from a wild, dissipated, and even outlaw-life, had taken a position of high respectability, that he had inherited, and to which he had thus raised his wife. The continued mystery of the still lost child was soon cleared. During an excursion near the manse, Butler and Sir George were waylaid by robbers, and the latter was shot by a fierce, gypsy-like boy, called "the Whistler," who proved to be his own son, - an outcast from birth among the companions of old Meg and similar characters. In such a course of life as that in which he had been placed, he had recently become allied with a band of robbers. With them he had been attracted by report of the presence of a rich Englishman at Knocktarlitie, and with them had made this fatal attempt upon one unknown to him, his own father. The wretched boy was arrested; but, through assistance of Jeanie, he escaped execution, only ultimately to meet a death as wild as his life. His widowed mother returned to London society, and, "after blazing nearly ten years in the fashionable world, and hiding, like many of her compeers, an aching heart with a gay demeanor, after declining repeated offers of the most respectable kind, for a second matrimonial engagement," retired to severe penance and seclusion in a Continental Convent. "Meanwhile," Jeanie and her husband, "happy in each other, in the prosperity of their family, and the love and honor of all who knew them," "lived beloved, and died lamented."

And Sir Walter closes his masterly composition, with this reflection: "Reader, this tale will not be told in vain, if it shall be found to illustrate the great truth, that guilt, though it may attain temporal splendor, can never confer real happiness; that the evil consequences of our crimes long survive their commission, and, like the ghosts of the murdered, for ever haunt the steps of the malefactor; and that the paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace."

There are several places named in the story, and associated with subordinate particulars of it, that have not been described here. These are the West Bow and Grassmarket, scenes of the execution of Porteous; the old Ports, or gates, secured by the rioters at that time, but now not existing; Parliament Square, where Effie Dean's trial was; Portobello, where she disappeared three days after her pardon; Libberton, earlier residence of Reuben Butler; Peffer Mill, three or four miles south of Edinburgh, the supposed residence of Dumbiedikes (to be distinguished from a real place thus named in the lower part of the old town); York, Newark (with its Castle), and other places passed by Jeanie during her London journey; and some quiet little scenes around the Gare Loch, where the latter portion of the action of the novel occurred.

The route of this tour, southward from Edinburgh, may be first to North Berwick, and scenery of "Marmion," near there; and then, from Cockburnspath station, to Fast Castle, on the sea-shore, -the "Wolf's Crag," and chief reputed locality of the "Bride of Lammermuir," described in chapter thirty-sixth. If this route is taken, the places described in the next two chapters must be visited during an excursion from Edinburgh. Travellers, by whatever route they reach the Eastern Border of Scotland, should (and probably will), however, of all regions, select for a visit the one most attractive in the lands of Scott, the one most abounding in associations with him and with his works, situated about forty miles south from Edinburgh, and including Melrose and Abbotsford. This region, sometimes called distinctively Land of Scott," is described in chapters xxxiv. and xxxv. be conveniently reached during an expedition to scenery of two novels sketched in the next two chapters, and of a region famous in minstrelsy, forming the subject of the thirty-third chapter. The end of this expedition may be at Edinburgh, and thence the route may be to England by the coast as already suggested.

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XXXI.

"SAINT RONAN'S WELL," AND ASHIESTIEL.

Eighteenth Novel of the Series, written 1823; Published December, 1823;
Author's age, 52; Time of action, about 1800.

NE may ride most of the way from Edinburgh to Innerleithen, by rail, in an hour and a half or two hours, and find the latter a quiet, pretty, and considerably frequented watering-place, situated in a wide, meadowy, secluded valley, environed by high, green hills, and traversed by the Tweed, there a considerable river. Innerleithen is, also, a convenient and pleasant stopping-place from which to visit many delightful scenes, several of which are associated with Scott. The place itself, a mere hamlet until the latter part of the last century, has become recognized as his "St. Ronan's Well," and the place of action of most of this story. Thus rendered attractive, its healthy climate, the scenery of its environs, and its waters (resembling those of Harrowgate, and healing, though not delicious, to those unaccustomed to them), have developed it to the thriving town and interesting visiting-place one now finds it. Sundry woollen-mills also have increased its resources, if not its beauty. There is a main street, of rather new, good-looking houses, and an older street, extending up a hill-crest to the well, if the writer remembers correctly. In the former, was pointed out a square, two-story house, built of rough stones, painted slate color, with white, cut-stone quoins and window finishings; and this house was said to have been the Old St. Ronan's Inn, kept by that celebrity among landladies, Mistress Meg Dods, elderly, maiden, strong-minded, quick-tempered, strong-prejudiced, and strongarmed, where she did according to her notions of the customs of her father before her, and where she anathematized the growing rival public-house, that she denominated the "hottel" by the "Spawell."

Mr. Frank Tyrrel opened the action of the story, at this old "Cleikum" inn, by appearing and sojourning there. He was a young gentleman with affinities to the neighborhood, and a knowledge of it then mysteriously great. He was soon described at the "Spa," and was invited to it; and thus the mixed company

there assembled became introduced to him and the world; and the author, as he states, was enabled "to display a species of society, where the strongest contrast of humorous characters and manners may be brought to bear on and illustrate each other with less violation of probability than could be supposed to attend the same miscellaneous assemblage in any other situation." Among various persons, we learn of Miss Clara Mowbray, heroine of the novel, and sister of the "Lord of the manor," Mr. John Mowbray. She invited the company to her family seat, Shaw's Castle, where, before the end of the story, not a few strange incidents occurred. Investigation rather perplexes one about the identity of this edifice. It is said to be designed from Raeburn, near St. Boswell's Green, many miles down the Tweed, and beyond Melrose. But as castellated structures abound in the vicinity of Innerleithen, the reader may possibly prefer right of private judgment, and thus be suited in the local habitation-of these incidents. The story, to be sure, describes this seat as being about three miles from the village; and thus a clew is given to the archæological explorations of an inquiring sojourner at the Spa.

Besides this place, the story is associated with so few distinct localities, that it need not be described here, in order to indicate or suggest them; and this chapter may state enough by conducting the traveller to its general scene, where, if there is a long stop, or one of even a day or two, it will be a subject of local interest and desirable entertainment. There is, however, one spot prominently described in the novel, that will naturally be visited, and that may be mentioned here, the old castle of St. Ronan's, that stands "on a rising ground immediately adjoining the village," and that, with its works of circumvallation, covers more than an acre. An immense quantity of uncemented stones were used in its material construction; but imagination is required to fashion them into quite the castle of the story. The curious history of Clara Mowbray, its heroine, can there, or in any other place very adapted to reading such a history as hers, be found, as the great novelist has told it, and as Mr. Lockhart describes it, one of "the highest efforts of tragic romance."

Along the Tweed, for a considerable distance below Innerleithen, is a narrow, pastoral vale, rather more than half a dozen miles down which, on the south bank, is ASHIESTIEL, now a strictly private residence. It was occupied by Scott from the earlier part