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and her errors, beautiful and affecting as a Madonna of Guido. In 1566 the walls of Craig Millar were the confidants of the perfidious suggestions of Mary's counsellors. It was here that the death of Darnley was plotted, the final conse quence of which was the ruin of the queen herself. The neighbouring village, doubtless, furnished a residence for a part of the court; and it has retained the name of Little France.

Notwithstanding the charms of a morning, beautiful as a spring day-break in Provence, notwithstanding the charms of the spot where I was, I could not forget the breakfast which awaited me in Castle-street. The remembrance of Mary Stuart had not power to banish the recollection of the novelist who has depicted her so interestingly in the Abbot. At half past nine, I was already in Sir Walter Scott's study.

SIR W. SCOTT.-"I am delighted that you have not forgot your promise; Lady Scott will be much pleased to see you, and you will dine with one of our first poets, Mr. Crabbe."

"I have perused his verses with real pleasure. He is a poet of common life, but still a poet. You have called him the English Juvenal. It is interesting to meet with him at the house of the poet of chivalry."

SIR W. SCOTT" He is a great poet, and an excellent man; a good and amiable landlord. Do you begin to be somewhat familiar with our town?”

"It surprises me more and more every day; every step produces a theatrical hit. You have

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yourself selected a house in one of the most picturesque sites; for your own romantic town' may be divided into sites as well as quarters."

Sir W. S.-" Like most others, I have abandoned the old town. The most ancient house of the new town is not more than fifty years old; every thing has changed its aspect in this country since 1745. We are now gathering the fruits of the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, and especially of the extinction of domestic factions. The existing generation is the only one which has not been a witness to some political re-action. Our fathers witnessed the events of 1745; our grandfathers those of 1689 and 1713, and the preceding generation the great rebellion; a generation still farther back would bring us to those epochs of disorder when the sword so seldom reposed in the scabbard."

"Each family now occupies an entire house after the English fashion; families are subdividing themselves more than they used. May not that circumstance have an effect on Scotch sociality, immemorially eulogized as so different from that isolation in which each family in London appears to detach itself from the rest ?"

Sir W. S.-" Civilization augments proportionately; the various ranks combine more; the desire of congregating becomes stronger; and never were the assemblies of Edinburgh so brilliant as We have, however, some eulogizers of past times, who regret the period when the families of Edinburgh, proud as well as poor, could get a

now.

party together without much expence. All the visits were then paid in sedan chairs; invitations to dinner were unfrequent except on extraordinary occasions; the evening was generally passed modestly round the tea table. But now there is a continual rivalry of luxury and elegance on every side. side. As much respect is paid to wealth in the fashionable assemblies as to rank and talent; formerly in the inferior classes, neighbours being more dependant on each other, more readily assumed a habit of good intelligence, and a conciliatory interchange of politeness."

"Much is said about your winter routs. Is there the same mob at your doors and in your drawing-rooms as at the routs of London ?"

SIR W. SCOTT" Nearly so. Upon that point lamentations over the old state of society may be just. After an unluxurious dinner, but during which the bottles of claret and port circulated freely every body went in half an hour to rejoin the ladies, instead of as now, exhausting their patience. After tea all was ready for dancing: the carpet was soon taken up; the piano was orchestra sufficient; there was less ceremony but more gaiety in these impromptu amusements. Now-a-days you receive an invitation a month before hand. There is a grand dinner, but great reserve; the drawingroom is well lighted but crowded, and no place for dancing. No more agreeable conversation at the fire-side; accordingly, every body makes his escape as quickly as possible and goes about till three o'clock in the morning to elbow his

friends or get elbowed in eight or ten drawingrooms magnificently lighted up."

A portion of this conversation was continued in the breakfast parlour, whither Sir W. Scott invited me to proceed with him at the end of a quarter of an hour's tête-a-tête. We found there Lady Scott and her youngest daughter. I was presented to them. Lady Scott has agreeable features and a prepossessing smile. Miss Scott is a well educated young lady, who is endowed with every requisite to please, and especially, great simplicity of manner; her eldest sister married Mr. Lockhart, a barrister, critic, and author of considerable talent, who possesses a peculiar talent for satire united to much imagination. Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart entered the room after breakfast; Mrs. Lockhart is distinguished by all the attractions of a pretty woman; she is a musician, and sings Scotch airs with great feeling.

Sir W. Scott went out for a moment; Mr. Crabbe was not yet up. Lady Scott addressed several questions to me; in my reply I naturally led the conversation to some compliments on her husband. She appeared fully alive to the value of the good name he has acquired, and was much flattered by what I told her of the enthusiasm with which his works were received in France.

She asked me if I knew Mr. Crabbe; I quoted his principal works, at which Lady Scott appeared rather surprised. "Mr. Crabbe," she said, imagines his name to be scarcely known in France; he will be much pleased to meet with

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a Frenchman who has read his compositions. What is your opinion of Mr. Crabbe?"

"If I were to depict his portrait from his works, I should paint him as a little sour old man, with an air of suffering, moroseness, and derision; but on whom I should also confer, (difficult combination) a degree of susceptibility in the countenance."

LADY SCOTT.-"Youwould then be deceived; he is an agreeable old gentleman, of constant equanimity, and of prepossessing and respectable deportment. He has come expressly to Scotland in order to see Sir W. Scott, to whom he is greatly attached. The last time that Sir Walter went to London they were prevented from meeting. Notwithstanding his age, Mr. Crabbe has now performed the journey. He said that he should not be content to die without seeing the poet of Scotland." . Among the many tributes that Sir W. Scott is in the habit of receiving, this ought to flatter him the most.

Mr. Crabbe now entered. He was, in fact, an unpretending old gentleman, gentle, but rather cold in his deportment, and wearing his years well; for he must be an octogenarian. Some little coquetry might be discovered in his person, so neatly was he dressed. After the customary introduction we all sat down, and I was placed between Miss Scott and Mr. Crabbe.

The breakfast was abundant. I recollected that Sir W. Scott always describes with a certain degree of complaisance, the repasts of his heroes. Poor Caleb Balderstone, during the epochs of his periodical famines, would have greatly admired

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