omewhat lax, but it will do no harm to note a piece of orthography,
which will show the standard at which the middle lower class had then
arrived. It is copied from _The Times_ of 29 June, 1837. "(_From an
Evening Paper_)--Last autumn, Mrs. C---, of London, during a visit to ---
House, in the West of Scotland, called one day, along with some other
ladies, in the family carriage, at the Golden Arms Inn, of a sea bathing
place on the coast, and stopped for about an hour. Some time after the
party had returned to D--- House, Mrs. C--- discovered that she had lost
a very fine boa, which she supposed she must have left at the Inn. On
enquiry, no trace of the boa could be found; but, about two months after
Mrs. C---'s return to London, she received a parcel with a boa somewhat
torn, accompanied by the accompanying (_sic_) epistle, which we give as
rather a curiosity of its kind:--

"Golden Arms Inn--29 Oct., 1836.

"Mrs. C---, London,

"MADUM,--I was sorry to heer that when you lost your Bowa in my huse,
that the Bowa was stole by my sarvant lasses; and the sarvants at
D--- House spred a report against my huses karakter, which no person
ever questioned afore. My wiffe, Peggy, was muckle vexed at the
report, and sershed the trunks of all the lasses, but did not find
your Bowa; she fund in Jenny McTavish's kist half a pund of tea which
Jenny had stole from my wiffes cupboard. Jenny denied taking your
Bowa; but not doubting that you would tell a lee, and as Jenny tuke
the tea, my wife thocht she must have taken your Bowa too, so I
turned off Jeny for your satisfaction. She went home to her mithers
house in ---, and four Sundays after, wha should be cocken in the
breist of the laft, all set round with ribbons in her heed, but Miss
Jeny with your Bowa on her shoulders, like a sow with a saddle on its
back. I stopped her coming out of the kirk. So So, Miss Jeny (says
I) hae ye stumped the cow of her tale, or is this the ladies Bowa ye
have on your sholders? The brazen faced woman had the impudence to
deny the Bowa was yours, and said her sweetheart had bot it for her
in a secondhand shop in the Salt Market of Glasgow. But I cut
matters short wi' Jeny; I een, as if by your authority, tuke the law
in my own hand, and tore the Bowa from her sholders; it was torn a
little in the scuffle wi' Jeny