one upon his premises, and as he had before offended several country
neighbours, who, because he would neither shoot himself nor permit
others to do so, compared him to the dog in the manger, so he now
aggravated the displeasure which the Laird of the Lakes had already
conceived against him, by positively debarring him from pursuing his
sport over his grounds--'So that,' said Rachel Geddes, 'I sometimes wish
our lot had been cast elsewhere than in these pleasant borders, where,
if we had less of beauty around us, we might have had a neighbourhood of
peace and, goodwill.'

We at length returned to the house, where Miss Geddes showed me a small
study, containing a little collection of books, in two separate presses.

'These,' said she, pointing to the smaller press, 'will, if thou
bestowest thy leisure upon them, do thee good; and these,' pointing to
the other and larger cabinet, 'can, I believe, do thee little harm. Some
of our people do indeed hold, that every writer who is not with us
is against us; but brother Joshua is mitigated in his opinions, and
correspondeth with our friend John Scot of Amwell, who hath himself
constructed verses well approved of even in the world. I wish thee many
good thoughts till our family meet at the hour of dinner.'

Left alone, I tried both collections; the first consisted entirely
of religious and controversial tracts, and the latter formed a small
selection of history and of moral writers, both in prose and verse.

Neither collection promising much amusement, thou hast, in these close
pages, the fruits of my tediousness; and truly, I think, writing history
(one's self being the subject) is as amusing as reading that of foreign
countries, at any time.

Sam, still more drunk than sober, arrived in due time with my
portmanteau, and enabled me to put my dress into order, better befitting
this temple of cleanliness and decorum, where (to conclude) I believe I
shall be a sojourner more days than one. [See Note 1.]

PS.--I have noted your adventure, as you home-bred youths may perhaps
term it, concerning the visit of your doughty laird. We travellers hold
such an incident no great consequence, though it may serve to embellish
the uniform life of Brown's Square. But art thou not ashamed to attempt
to interest one who is seeing the world at large, and studying human
nature on a large scale, by so bald a narrative? Why, what does it
amount to, after all, but that a Tory laird dined with a