married her; that having been married five years, without any children, he was, after that, disabled, and for two years confined to bed by a stroke of the palsy, and then died. No latter will having been found among his papers, the lady was left, as to money matters, nearly what she was when he married her, excepting an annuity of about thirty pounds from the ministers widows fund. Mr. F.'s friends thinking themselves sure of his property, were proceeding at Whitsunday, being about three months after his death, to the sale of his effects, when she prevented them, saying, she believed she had a right to dispose of them herself, as she perceived herself to be with child. The truth is, in about eleven months after the old man's death, this good lady brought forth a fine chopping boy, who is heir to all the old man's property; and she, of course, manager of it for him till he is of age. They who suspect Mrs. F.'s virtue on this occasion, forget that the law of Scotland, as well as that of England, allows a year and a day to women in such cases. Notwithstanding that the rent of land in the neighbourhood of this city is so much higher than even in the neighbourhood of London, and gardening is much studied in Scotland, yet there is one improvement in gardening in England which I have not observed in Scotland, and that is, the sowing and raking in two different species of seeds in the same piece of ground at one and the same time. Thus, in England, particularly near London, when they sow onions, carrots, and the like, the gardeners never fail to sow radishes, or some hasty grow ing seeds, along with them; which radishes, &c. are generally full grown, and ready for the table by the time the carrot-seed leaves have well peeped through the ground. They do the same when they plant greens, cabbages, cauliflower, and the like. They know the value of ground too well not to sow radishes, or some hasty growing crop, between the rows, to be reaped before the cabbages require hoeing or much room. In the interior of Aberdeenshire, not long ago, a certain nobleman, who, though not confined, had not too much prudence in his conduct, when the maid was lighting the parlour fire one morning, was standing behind the door with a large carpenter's axe in his hands, lifted up higher than his head, and in the attitude of fetching a stroke. His lordship having a wild-look, cried, "Make haste, girl, and light the fire, and then I will cut off your head." The young woman observing him, and hearing this, went slowly to the middle of the floor, and then, with a sudden spring, flew out of the room and the house, and then directly to her mother's, about half a mile distant, where, having immediately gone to bed, she died the next day, END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LIST OF THE PLATES. Frontispiece Map of Scotland, before the Frontispiece. page 23 191 212 Another View of the Grand Cliff Frontispiece to Vol. II. vet. 252. Balveny Castle Mar Lodge, Hunting Seat of the Earl of Fife Crossing a River to go to Church A Blacksmith ducking a Tailor Forres, Sweno's Stone View on Loch Lochy 342 441 |