ved in great distress sundry
personages whose idle and mendicant habits his own lachesse had
contributed to foster, until these habits had become irreclaimable, or
whose real incapacity for exertion rendered them fit objects, in their
own phrase, for the charity of all well-disposed Christians. The
'long-remembered beggar,' who for twenty years had made his regular
rounds within the neighbourhood, received rather as an humble friend than
as an object of charity, was sent to the neighbouring workhouse. The
decrepit dame, who travelled round the parish upon a hand-barrow,
circulating from house to house like a bad shilling, which every one is
in haste to pass to his neighbour,--she, who used to call for her bearers
as loud, or louder, than a traveller demands post-horses,--even she
shared the same disastrous fate. The 'daft Jock,' who, half knave, half
idiot, had been the sport of each succeeding race of village children for
a good part of a century, was remitted to the county bridewell, where,
secluded from free air and sunshine, the only advantages he was capable
of enjoying, he pined and died in the course of six months. The old
sailor, who had so long rejoiced the smoky rafters of every kitchen in
the country by singing 'Captain Ward' and 'Bold Admiral Benbow,' was
banished from the county for no better reason than that he was supposed
to speak with a strong Irish accent. Even the annual rounds of the pedlar
were abolished by the Justice, in his hasty zeal for the administration
of rural police.

These things did not pass without notice and censure. We are not made of
wood or stone, and the things which connect themselves with our hearts
and habits cannot, like bark or lichen, be rent away without our missing
them. The farmer's dame lacked her usual share of intelligence, perhaps
also the self-applause which she had felt while distributing the awmous
(alms), in shape of a gowpen (handful) of oatmeal, to the mendicant who
brought the news. The cottage felt inconvenience from interruption of the
petty trade carried on by the itinerant dealers. The children lacked
their supply of sugarplums and toys; the young women wanted pins,
ribbons, combs, and ballads; and the old could no longer barter their
eggs for salt, snuff, and tobacco. All these circumstances brought the
busy Laird of Ellangowan into discredit, which was the more general on
account of his former popularity. Even his lineage was brought up in
judgment against