and remembered, that when Members of Parliament enjoyed the unlimited
privilege of franking by the mere writing the name on the cover, it was
extended to the most extraordinary occasions. One noble lord, to express
his regard for a particular regiment, franked a letter for every rank
and file. It was customary also to save the covers and return them,
in order that the correspondence might be carried on as long as the
envelopes could hold together.] Mercy upon us, Alan! what letters I
shall have to send to you, with an account of all that I can collect, of
pleasant or rare, in this wild-goose jaunt of mine! All I stipulate is
that you do not communicate them to the SCOTS MAGAZINE; for though you
used, in a left-handed way, to compliment me on my attainments in the
lighter branches of literature, at the expense of my deficiency in the
weightier matters of the law, I am not yet audacious enough to enter the
portal which the learned Ruddiman so kindly opened for the acolytes of
the Muses.--VALE SIS MEMOR MEI. D. L.

PS. Direct to the Post Office here. I shall leave orders to forward your
letters wherever I may travel.

LETTER II

ALAN FAIRFORD TO DARSIE LATIMER

NEGATUR, my dear Darsie--you have logic and law enough to understand the
word of denial. I deny your conclusion. The premises I admit, namely,
that when I mounted on that infernal hack, I might utter what seemed
a sigh, although I deemed it lost amid the puffs and groans of the
broken-winded brute, matchless in the complication of her complaints by
any save she, the poor man's mare, renowned in song, that died

A mile aboon Dundee.

[Alluding, as all Scotsmen know, to the humorous old song:--

'The auld man's mare's dead,
The puir man's mare's dead,
The auld man's mare's dead,
A mile aboon Dundee.']

But credit me, Darsie, the sigh which escaped me, concerned thee more
than myself, and regarded neither the superior mettle of your cavalry,
nor your greater command of the means of travelling. I could certainly
have cheerfully ridden with you for a few days; and assure yourself I
would not have hesitated to tax your better filled purse for our joint
expenses. But you know my father considers every moment taken from the
law as a step down hill; and I owe much to his anxiety on my account,
although its effects are sometimes troublesome. For example:

I found, on my arrival at the shop in Brown's Square, that the old
gentleman had returned that