On the following day whilst I was expecting the usual visit of Sir Toby, I was summoned down to a gentleman who wished personally to speak to me from him. To make short of the matter, Sir Toby had slipped his shoulder in a coursing match the same morning, and had sent me the information as an apology for his absence. The hurt was not indeed dangerous, though such as necessarily to confine him to his chamber for a few days. and`simple words, he wanted nothing but fortune, and this he certainly most com quently mistaken for it, that I am persuaded from what has fallen within my own observation, that the greater part of fashion-pletely wanted. able marriages are entirely founded upon it. Be this as it may, Sir Toby had once pressed me hard to consent to our union; the opportunity, as the poets say, was favourable to him; we were returning from an assize ball by moonlight, and my father had got so intoxicated at the dinner that he was senseless, and in a profound sleep in one corner of the coach. Sir Toby and myself were on the opposite seat; the moon, as I said, shone bright, and it being midsummer the nightingales were singing: you will allow that this was a happy moment for a lover. Not to go into the detail of a novel, Sir Toby pressed my consent to a day which he named, and being perfectly in good-humour with him, I was on the point of pronouncing my irrevocable doom, when one of those accidents which at once vary the whole tenour of life, interposed in the very moment that the word was on my lips. Sir Toby happened to tread on my father's gouty foot; he awoke in the instant, and the conversation necessarily took an-long paying his addresses to Lady Emily other turn. Belcour, and after much difficulty on the side of the nobleman her father, the union was to take place on the following condition,-that in the event that my brother had no children by Lady Emily, the family estate of my father was still to pass into the family of the old Earl, Lady Emily's father. My father, in his eagerness for this splendid match, overlooked the peculiar modesty of this proposal; he accordingly consented to it, but as the estate was a general entail, it was necessary likewise to procure my consent. I gave it most cheerfully. "There is one other requisite," said my father." Your two lovers, Mr. Honeycomb and Sir Toby, are addressing you under the impression that the estate is yours on failure of issue, or the death of your brother; I am sorry to say that the latter is but too probable from his late state of health. It is necessary, therefore, that I should inform these gentlemen how the matter now stands, that all may be open and mutually understood between us; I shall do it instantly," || Whether this gentleman was struck with me, or fancied that I was so with him, I know not, but his first visit was soon followed by a second, and by rendering himself agreeable to my father he received a general and daily invitation to our house. Insensibly the whole of his time was spent with us.To make short of the matter, we soon became agreeable to each other, and as usually happens in such cases, soon made the discovery of our secret. The dif ference of fortune necessarily compelled us to discretion and present secrecy, but we coutinued to cherish our mutual attachment in the confidence that an opportunity might at length occur which would favour the discovery of it to my father. Things were in this situation; Sir Toby confined to his room, but daily writing to me, whilst another had totally supplanted him; in this manner, I say, were our affairs situated when a new Occurrence took place in my family. My brother had been The gentleman who brought me this information, and whom I shall call Horatio, as he is now living, and might not approve the publicity of his real name, was the son of an officer of very small fortune; his interest, however, had procured the young man a commission, and he had been quartered in the neighbourhood of Sir Toby. I will not lose myself in words by a detailed description of this youngLieutenant, whom you may readily imagine a new lover. Suffice it to say, that to the good-humour of Sir Toby he added the manners of the accomplished gentleman, and the knowledge of the scholar refined and familiarized same day. Sir Toby immediately answerby a converse with the world. In plained, that he had addressed me for myself The letters were accordingly sent the and not for my fortune. That my fortune was still as much as he had any right to expect with any wife, and certainly more than he wished with me, as I had qualities which might compensate even for a total want of it. This letter to my father was accompanied by one to me, which I confess gave me much pain, as it proved that though rough, and without the grace of manners, Sir Toby had a natural honour, and an inbred generosity, which does not always accompany more manners and more knowledge. To speak plainly, I began to think that Sir Toby was not altogether well treated. The other letter, the one from Mr. Honeycomb, was of totally a different nature. My father entered with it in his hand, and gave it to me." Here is a pitiful fellow," said he," but I am persuaded, Hymenæa, that you will congratulate yourself on a good riddance." My father concluded with an oath against knowledge of the world, politeness, and an Harrow education. The letter was as follows: Sir Toby's the man. I have taken a resolution. Your brother and yourself shall be married both on the same day. Sir Toby dines here on Sunday, and on the following Saturday you shall be married. Say not a word, Hymenea, this is my will, and in this I will be positive. I ask nothing unreasonable. Sir Toby is in every way worthy of you." You may imagine that this resolution of my father embarras sed me not a little; I will not say it distressed me, for as I had made up my own mind, I consoled myself in the idea that nothing could compel me to a wilful sacrifice of my own happiness. Horatio dined at our house as usual; you may imagine that I watched my opportunity, and informed him of all that had happened. He conjured me to abide by my determination not to sacrifice him for Sir Toby, and then left me as I thought very abruptly. I was offended, moreover, with what I then thought an unpardonable omission. There was one ready and immediate escape from all our difficulties; "Mr. Honeycomb has had the honour to why did he not propose it? why did he not receive Mr. Wellwood's letter. Mr. Honey-suggest an elopement and a Scotch marcomb has only to add, that the information contained in it makes a most material alteration in what he conceived to be the situation of Miss Wellwood; a circumstance, indeed, of which Mr. Wellwood himself seems to have been aware, by sending Mr. Honeycomb the notice. Under these circumstances Mr. Honeycomb has only to add, that with the highest respect for Miss Wellwood, as well as for her father and family, he must so far consult the prudential considerations resulting from his own situation, as most reluctantly to resign his former pretensions." riage? I saw nor heard nothing of Horatio till the following day, when my father entered my room in a fury of passion, and after his abuse of me, for such it was, became distinct, I discovered that the cause of it had been a letter from Horatio, in which my lover had pleaded his passion, acknow. ledged his inequality of fortune, and sug gested that I had overlooked it. "You are thus about," said my father, " to throw yourself away on a beggar. It was not enough that I gave you a choice out of two of the best matches in the country, and certainly one of them perfectly unexceptionable. You know that I have but one "This letter explains a circumstance," said my father, "which I had heard before, but which I had some difficulty in believ-wish at my heart, to see you well married. ing. The Earl of A-, has two daughters, Lady Charlotte and Lady Emily. They are co-hei esses, and your brother, as you know, is to have one of them. Since this has been known in the country, Honey-him for his breach of hospitality. Do not comb has spared no efforts to get the defend him. It is enough that I hate him. other." "Is she not deformed," said I. Marry Sir Toby," repeated he, "and keep "What is that," replied my father, "to your room till you have decided your purHoneycomb, when she is co-heiress to one pose." With these words he left me, lockof the finest estates in the country. But ing the door, and taking the key away with let us have done with the hateful fellow. him. But my resolution is taken, marry Sir Toby, or you are no longer my child. To this officer I have a most insuperable objection, I neither like his connections, and I abhor You must imagine that under these circumstances I felt as young women usually do. I thought myself an heroine, and examined the window; but on second thoughts I considered it better not to break my neck. I took up my scissars, but had the prudence to lay them down again. In a word, I fairly wept myself to sleep, and by the next day had exhausted myself into reason and submission. My mother entered my chamber about noon, accompanied by my father, who had hitherto suffered me to see no one, and had brought my food himself. My father left my mother and myself together, but still locked the door, desiring my mother to ring when she wished to leave me. My mother now reasoned with me in a style of good sense, which at once softened my obstinacy and inspired my confidence. I will not weary you with a detailed narrative of our discourse on both sides. Suffice SECOND-SIGHT. ISLE OF SKY, NORTH-BRITAIN. SIR, I AM one of those singular characters whose existence every one is inclined to doubt till they have received the evidence of their senses, and even then, if they happen to be of that class of men who are termed philosophers, it will run hard with them but they will doubt their senses too. It is my fortune indeed, to have seen one or more examples of these beings, who, though brought in to my presence,and absolutely seeing me in action and operation, as they term it, have still gone on hesitating, and having begun by doubting me, finish by doubting themselves. To such people I am not now writing, and have but one answer for all their hems of incredulity. "What you assert is impossible," said a philosopher to a peasant. "You may be very right, master, for all that I know," replied the countryman, “but what I say is true, though you may have very good reasons to the contrary." it to say, that my mother left me to propose a compromise to my father, which briefly was, that I should think no more of the Lieutenant, and that he should press me no more on Sir Toby. This comproraise was accepted, and I was restored to liberty, though, as I afterwards understood, very closely watched. In this manner had I lost at once three lovers. You may perhaps feel some curiosity as to their subsequent fate. Horatio, the elegant accomplished Horatio, eloped about three weeks afterwards, with the daughter of a rich brazier, who in the event made him an excellent wife. Sir Toby, as a matter of slight to me, addressed himself to the deformed daughter of the Earl of A, and much to the satisfaction of my father supplanted Mr. Honeycomb and married her. So much for my three lovers.—In my next I shall give you an account of others. HYMENEA. All travellers in Scotland, who have visited the Isle of Sky, cannot but have remarked a very lofty hill which almost loses its top in the clouds, and frowns over the subject sea; they must have observed, moreover, that the top of this hill is crowned with the ruins of an antient castle, nothing of which indeed now remains but its walls, and its grand portal; this portal, like all those attached to the larger castles in North-Britain, is flanked by two towers, connected together by the curtain, through the centre of which is the a ched gateway. The loftiness of these towers is generally in proportion to the magnitude of the castle. In Sky Castle therefore they are unusually lofty; that structure having been formerly one of the most considerable in the kingdom. || In this castle, Sir, were my ancestors born, and for many centuries enjoyed all the sovereign power possessed by the antient Barons. They were the Lords of the Island, and though they nominally, and by an homage of form, acknowledged the supremacy of the Kings of Scotland, this homage, and this acknowledgment tended nothing to diminish their own immediate power. In plain words, they were as absolute as the Kings of Asia, and were in every sense of the word true Knights and Barous They loved liberty, and kept it all to them-, lived a thousand years ago, that we transfer every thing which belongs to them, to ourselves. If they have eaten, we eat,—if they have been great, we are great, and all our actual beggary and insignificance is only a delusion of the senses. Take this principle with you, and you will hereafter cease to wonder at many of the actions of Scotsmen, which without this principle appear obscure and unintelligible. To return, however, to my own family; though, if you have any Scotch blood in you, I mean any o' the gude blood, you will need no apology from me that I have digressed from myself to my nation. To return, however, to my more immediate subject. My family had two other claims to distinction besides their birth. The first was wealth, for they were really wealthy, they had glass to their windows and soles to their shoes, when half the houses in Scotland were open to the wind and rain, and no one under an Earl had a stocking to his leg. selves. The were clamorous enough when My family possessed that distinction and reputation which rank and birth gives in every country under heaven, and more particularly in Scotland. There is a proverb current in every nation in the world, that the poorest nations are always the proudest. Those who have nothing to console themselves with have usually the happy art of finding consolation in themselves. Many families in Scotland may not have the property of an acre,—what then, they have that of a title? Many of them may want a house, but then they have a titular Barony. Many of them may not have a shirt themselves,-what || then, their ancestors wore ermine. These are solid consolations, and he is not a Scot of the true blood, who, whilst his own brawny back, as the poet calls it, is bleaching under the northern blast, does not comfort himself and become insensible to the bitter wind, when he reflects that the illustrious Barons, his ancestors, were warm enough in their costly robes. The pride of ancestry,, and the advan-bers to the highest honours of the state. tages of family distinction, are not sufficiently understood in your part of the world, and indeed are no where understood except it be in North-Britain. In NorthBritain, to have had illustrious ancestors is to have had a former compensation for all present difficulties and distress. We are in fact so identified with the persons of our ancestors, though they might have The other distinction of my family was still more important. You are not perhaps sufficiently acquainted with northern customs to understand what is understood amongst us by the term gifts. I will briefly explain it, Sir. There are certain families in Scotland who, from chance or a happy constitution of nature, are peculiarly favoured with some advantage over their countrymen, some additional quality to what is common to mankind in general, or some greater degree of such qualities as are common. These supernumerary qualities are what is termed GIFTS. Thus, for example, different families in North-Britain have been famed time immemorial for possessing different gifts. One family, by the gift of booing, and a peculiar suppleness of knee, have been raised in their successive mem. Another has had equal good fortune by what is vulgarly called the gift of gab. The members of these two families, which will be known without naming them in NorthBritain, have been ministers and lords of the bed chambers in every succeeding reign. In the same manner, the family of the Second-sights have likewise had their share of good fortune; some of them have makers, and others have written with some reputation on the Millenium. been financiers, some celebrated almanack-future fortune. In one thing alone we are limited, and Second-sight therein falls short of prediction. We cannot see the end of the procession, the train terminates in clouds, which are impenetrable to Secondsight; in a word, which are pervious only to prophecy. To explain myself by an example; suppose that one of your correspondents had informed me, as I was indeed last week informed, that she, a young woman, had married herself to an old man; it would doubtless be in my power to call up before my eyes and her own the greater part of the train of events which would make up the tissue of her future life, but how that life should end, when it should end, &c. &c. would be even beyond my powers of sight or prediction. I above mentioned, see a train of images, should perhaps, under the circumstances such as a young woman, a coffin, a buck with branching horns, and perhaps an unseen hole or precipice, into which, whilst the young female was anxiously looking at the coffin which was following her husband in the fond expectation that it would overtake him, she herself might fall, and the funeral procession might have another object than the one anticipated. Having said so much of the antiquity of my family, and of the sources of its reputation, you may naturally enough inquire whence they derived this extraordinary gift. Why, Sir, there is a tradition in the family, that when our good King James wrote upon witchcraft, and to act up to the principles of his book, ordered all the witches to be burned throughout his good realm of Scotland, there is a tradition, I say, Sir, that the then Lord of Sky gave a refuge and au asylum to the white witches, which from time immemorial had possess ed, and in a degree governed that island. In return for this protection, he is said to have received the gift in question from a conclave of the Weird Sisters. Be that as it may, Sir, for the Scottish family-records, like those of the Welch, become illegible ́as they mould into dust, so far is certainly true, that Malcolm, surnamed Whitebeard, the sixth in ascent from my father, has left a written document, or family-record, in which it is stated, that so many of the females of his family as shall remain virgins, shall at a certain age acquire, and thereafter retain, the faculty of Secondsight; that is to say, that they shall foresee all such events as shall happen within the period of their own life; that they shall see the images of things yet in futurity; and at their will shall call before their mental eye all those embryoes of events which yet lie in the womb of time. Having now, Sir, as fully explained myself as is required of a woman, I think you must perfectly understand both my powers and my wishes. Man, says the philosopher. and more particularly woman, is a sociable, communicative animal, and no one can be found possessed of any peculiar gift or acquisition, any quality of nature or attainment of education, who does not find his pleasure in the active operation of communicating his knowledge, or the effects of his knowledge, to others. There is no such things as avarice in these possessions. They are valuable only as they shine, and according to the expression of a Latin poet, This, Sir, is what is understood by Second-sight; and this, Sir, is what my family have now possessed for some centuries, and what, having fulfilled the condition on which it is given, I possess likewise. Now, Sir, it is in the character of one possessing this quality, that I wish to become your correspondent, as I fatter myself that I can thereby both assist you and exercise my own peculiar talent and enjoyment. There are doubtless many of your readers who would wish to have the mirror of their fate holden up before them; to such I offer my assistance; let one inform me of the circumstances of their situation, and my faculty will enable me to conjure the procession of their future life, and the srain of events which will compose their non splendent nisi in usu." They shine only as they are used. It is from this natural impulse, that of a social communication and exchange of favours, that I am induced, at a very advanced age, to introduce myself into your pages, and by the help of your arm seek to hobble into the drawing-room of your Belle Assemblée. Though a "wise woman," a 66 woman of ken," as they call me in these parts, I am still a woman, and therefore have all the |
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