11

A wretched hovel, share a poor repast.-P. 11. It is not easy to conceive the manifold miseries to which many of the ejected inhabitants of the Grampians are exposed, when they wander to any of the towns or cities of the low country, without any determinate object in view. A melancholy instance of the truth of this remark, I had an opportunity of witnessing about twenty-two years since; the narration of which will suffice to illustrate the passage of the poem with which the present note is connected. It was in the depth of winter (in the year 1781); a heavy fall of snow had lain long on the ground; the north wind blew keenly, and chilled one almost to death, when Alexander Lawson, a well disposed person (by trade a weaver) came to me and requested my charity for a poor, destitute family, who had taken shelter in a wretched hovel, a few doors from his workshop. My curiosity being excited by the description he gave of their deplorable condition, I accordingly followed him to the spot. We descended a few steps into what had once, perhaps, been a cellar. A small lamp placed in one corner of this hole, for it could not be called a habitable place, gave hardly sufficient light to shew the miserable state of those persons who had taken shelter in it from the inclemency of the storm. In one row, on a bed of straw made on the cold damp floor, were laid three men: their only covering plaids, for they were highlanders, and their dissolution seemed fast approaching. A woman, apparently past the middle period of life, who supported the head of the eldest on her lap, lifted up her eyes, as we entered, looked wistfully at us, and shook her head, but

uttered not a word, nor did a sigh escape her.

66

"Alas!

good woman," said I," have you no one to look after 66 in this destitute condition?"-"She can converse you, ❝in no other save that of her native tongue," said my conductor; and I addressed her in that language; when she instantly raised her eyes, in which a faint gleam of joy seemed for a moment to sparkle. Laying the head of her husband (for such the eldest of the three men was) gently down on the straw, she suddenly sprang up, came forward, seized me by both hands, cast a look upwards, and exclaimed, "O God! whom hast Thou sent to com"fort us!" Then looking me stedfastly in the face, she said, "In this wretched condition you thus see me among "strangers. My husband, and these my two sons, are "fast hastening to their graves. Nine days and nights "have their blood boiled in the malignant illness you "now see wasting them: It is now almost three days ❝ since I tasted the last morsel of bread." She then turned to her dying family, wrung her hands, and remained silent. On turning from this affecting scene, I observed a decent old woman coming forward to enquire for the unhappy sufferers; and, by the interest she seemed to take in their welfare, it led me to hope that, through her kind assistance, I should be enabled to afford them some relief. Having in the mean time ordered them an immediate supply of things absolutely necessary, I made haste to call in medical assistance; but, alas! it was too late; for the fever had already wasted the living energy in them; and, notwithstanding every possible aid art could administer under such unfavourable circumstances as their cases presented, when I called next morning, I

found the father and his eldest son in the agonies of death.

All was silent. ed his last.

In a few minutes, the

In a few minutes, the young man breathAnd now quivering in the pangs of dissolution, the old man lay on his back-his eyes fixed-the death-film covering them, and the dead-rattle, as it is called, indicating the near approach of the end of his earthly troubles. His gaze for a moment seemed to acquire intelligence, and with a keen, piercing look, peculiar to the dying, he calls to his wife to come close to him, and says:-" Companion of my youth and better days, "take this clay-cold hand-it is already dead—and I am "fast a-going." A few more inarticulate sounds issued from his livid lips, and he expired." Merciful God! my "husband!-my child too!" exclaimed the distracted mother, and sunk on the body of her late partner in misery. The shriek of wo transfixt me, and all the man shook to the centre. When I had in some measure recovered from the stupor this awful event had thrown me into, I retired, in order to get them decently buried. To provide for the poor widowed thing and her youngest son, whose case seemed less malignant, came of course to be considered. The favourable symptoms appearing, and the proper means cautiously used, his recovery was soon effected; which greatly alleviated the grief of his mother, who still continued free of infection, and escaped wonderfully till every apprehension of danger entirely vanished. When a reasonable time had elapsed, I learned the story of this family from the unfortunate widow herself, the particulars of which, so far as I recollect, are nearly the following. There was not a happier pair in the whole parish, (which lay on the banks of the Spey), than the father

and mother of this poor family, till, by reason of the introduction of a new set of tenants from a distant part of the country, the small farmers were ejected; among whom were the subjects of this simple narrative. To add to their misfortunes, their third son, a lad about fourteen, was affected with a white-swelling (as it is called) in his knee-joint, which prevented him from walking; and, when the family took their departure for the low-country, the father and his other two sons were obliged to carry this poor lame one on a hand-barrow; and thus travelled onward till they reached Aberdeen; where they got him put safely into the hospital of that city: But he was soon after dismissed incurable; and their little all being nearly spent, they were at a loss what next to do for subsistence. They were advised to travel to Edinburgh, in order to procure medical assistance for the lad; and get into some way of gaining an honest livelihood somewhere in or near the capital. To Edinburgh, therefore, they directed their course; and, after a tedious journey of many days, they found themselves within a short distance of the city. But, by this time, the little money they had saved from the sale of their effects, was gone; and they now were reduced to a state of absolute want. To beg they were ashamed; but starve they must, in the event they could find no immediate employment. But, from humane and charitably disposed persons they at last were obliged to implore assistance; and by this means they found their way to Edinburgh; where, soon after, the unfortunate lad whom they had carried in the way already mentioned from Aberdeen, was admitted a patient into the Royal Infirmary. It was now the beginning of

harvest. The high price of labour in the north of England, compared with that in the south of Scotland, induces many of our highlanders to go thither, in order to earn as much as possibly they can, during the season of reaping in that quarter. This poor family, among other reapers, travelled southward :-but it was a sad journey to them: for being soon seized with fever and ague, thus were they at once plunged into the deepest distress, far from their native home, and without a friend in the world to look after them. Not even suffered to remain any time in one place, they were barbarously hurried from parish to parish, as the custom is, till they reached Edinburgh, where being safely placed in the hospital, they soon recovered. But, on making enquiry after the lad left behind when they went to England, they were informed of his death, which happened a few days before their admission into the Infirmary. They now were dismissed cured;-but, where to take shelter they knew not! for they had not a soul in the city to assist them in the smallest matter. Feeble, tottering, and faint with hunger, they wandered about the streets until the evening, when they crept into that wretched hovel, in which I found them, as already stated.

12

Those Trans-Atlantic schemes of which you hear.-P. 13. It is matter of infinite regret, that those representations respecting the easy purchase of lands in North America, have seduced many, (particularly those who felt the evils of rack-rent from year to year press on them with accu