happy sound of twelve strokes from Time's oracle should tell them it
was time to take their meridian dram. The narrow windows of the shops
intimated very imperfectly the miscellaneous contents of the interior,
where every merchant, as the shopkeepers of Marchthorn were termed,
_more Scotico_, sold every thing that could be thought of. As for
manufactures, there were none, except that of the careful Town-Council,
who were mightily busied in preparing the warp and woof, which, at the
end of every five or six years, the town of Marchthorn contributed, for
the purpose of weaving the fourth or fifth part of a member of
Parliament.

In such a town, it usually happens, that the Sheriff-clerk, especially
supposing him agent for several lairds of the higher order, is possessed
of one of the best-looking houses; and such was that of Mr. Bindloose.
None of the smartness of the brick-built and brass-hammered mansion of a
southern attorney appeared indeed in this mansion, which was a tall,
thin, grim-looking building, in the centre of the town, with narrow
windows and projecting gables, notched into that sort of descent, called
crow-steps, and having the lower casements defended by stancheons of
iron; for Mr. Bindloose, as frequently happens, kept a branch of one of
the two national banks, which had been lately established in the town of
Marchthorn.

Towards the door of this tenement, there advanced slowly up the ancient,
but empty streets of this famous borough, a vehicle, which, had it
appeared in Piccadilly, would have furnished unremitted laughter for a
week, and conversation for a twelvemonth. It was a two-wheeled vehicle,
which claimed none of the modern appellations of tilbury, tandem,
dennet, or the like; but aspired only to the humble name of that almost
forgotten accommodation, a whiskey; or, according to some authorities, a
tim-whiskey. Green was, or had been, its original colour, and it was
placed sturdily and safely low upon its little old-fashioned wheels,
which bore much less than the usual proportion to the size of the
carriage which they sustained. It had a calash head, which had been
pulled up, in consideration either to the dampness of the morning air,
or to the retiring delicacy of the fair form which, shrouded by leathern
curtains, tenanted this venerable specimen of antediluvian
coach-building.

But, as this fair and modest dame noway aspired to the skill of a
charioteer, the management of a horse, which s