The Ayrshire Legatees | Page 6

I could have wished. However, if I get my
legacy well settled, I will buy the book, and lend it to you on my return,
please God, to the manse.
We were put on shore at Glasgow by breakfast-time, and there we
tarried all day, as I had a power of attorney to get from Miss Jenny
Macbride, my cousin, to whom the colonel left the thousand pound
legacy. Miss Jenny thought the legacy should have been more, and
made some obstacle to signing the power; but both her lawyer and
Andrew Pringle, my son, convinced her, that, as it was specified in the
testament, she could not help it by standing out; so at long and last
Miss Jenny was persuaded to put her name to the paper.
Next day we all four got into a fly coach, and, without damage or
detriment, reached this city in good time for dinner in Macgregor's
hotel, a remarkable decent inn, next door to one Mr. Blackwood, a civil

and discreet man in the bookselling line.
Really the changes in Edinburgh since I was here, thirty years ago, are
not to be told. I am confounded; for although I have both heard and
read of the New Town in the Edinburgh Advertiser, and the Scots
Magazine, I had no notion of what has come to pass. It's surprising to
think wherein the decay of the nation is; for at Greenock I saw nothing
but shipping and building; at Glasgow, streets spreading as if they were
one of the branches of cotton-spinning; and here, the houses grown up
as if they were sown in the seed-time with the corn, by a drill-machine,
or dibbled in rigs and furrows like beans and potatoes.
To-morrow, God willing, we embark in a smack at Leith, so that you
will not hear from me again till it please Him to take us in the hollow of
His hand to London. In the meantime, I have only to add, that, when
the Session meets, I wish you would speak to the elders, particularly to
Mr. Craig, no to be overly hard on that poor donsie thing, Meg Milliken,
about her bairn; and tell Tam Glen, the father o't, from me, that it
would have been a sore heart to that pious woman, his mother, had she
been living, to have witnessed such a thing; and therefore I hope and
trust, he will yet confess a fault, and own Meg for his wife, though she
is but something of a tawpie. However, you need not diminish her to
Tam. I hope Mr. Snodgrass will give as much satisfaction to the parish
as can reasonably be expected in my absence; and I remain, dear sir,
your friend and pastor,
ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
Mr. Micklewham received the Doctor's letter about an hour before the
Session met on the case of Tam Glen and Meg Milliken, and took it
with him to the session-house, to read it to the elders before going into
the investigation. Such a long and particular letter from the Doctor was,
as they all justly remarked, kind and dutiful to his people, and a great
pleasure to them.
Mr. Daff observed, "Truly the Doctor's a vera funny man, and
wonderfu' jocose about the toddy-bowl." But Mr. Craig said, that "sic a
thing on the Lord's night gi'es me no pleasure; and I am for setting my

face against Waverley's History of the Rebellion, whilk I hae heard
spoken of among the ungodly, both at Kilwinning and Dalry; and if it
has no respect to Protestant principles, I doubt it's but another dose o'
the radical poison in a new guise." Mr. Icenor, however, thought that
"the observe on the great Doctor Drystour was very edifying; and that
they should see about getting him to help at the summer Occasion." {1}
While they were thus reviewing, in their way, the first epistle of the
Doctor, the betherel came in to say that Meg and Tam were at the door.
"Oh, man," said Mr. Daff, slyly, "ye shouldna hae left them at the door
by themselves." Mr. Craig looked at him austerely, and muttered
something about the growing immorality of this backsliding age; but
before the smoke of his indignation had kindled into eloquence, the
delinquents were admitted. However, as we have nothing to do with the
business, we shall leave them to their own deliberations.
CHAPTER II--THE
VOYAGE

On the fourteenth day after the departure of the family from the manse,
the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass, who was appointed to officiate during
the absence of the Doctor, received the following letter from his old
chum, Mr. Andrew Pringle. It would appear that the young advocate is
not so solid in the head as some of his elder brethren at the Bar;