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When very handsome, it is handed down from father to son during a long period of years, and is looked upon as an heir-loom in the family.

I have been only once in church during the time of service since my arrival in this country, and was much edified by an excellent Dutch sermon. The church was handsome, and contained a magnificent organ, the tone of which, I do not doubt, was very fine; but as each member of the congregation sung a most vociferous and openmouthed accompaniment, my sense of hearing was completely deadened during the performance, in so far as concerned the perception of more delicate sounds. Among other ornaments which surrounded the organ, there were a number of little angels playing the fiddle, apparently in a very masterly style. In the few churches which I have seen, there are scarcely any pews, but each flag-stone of the floor is numbered, and as there are abundance of chairs, each person places one on his own particular number. As soon as the first psalm ceases, and the sermon has commenced, each man and boy places his hat on his head, and sits at his ease, at least so it was in the church which I visited.

I did not observe any one smoking in church, but in the streets and highways, all the men, and a few of the women, have their pipes constantly in their mouths. I have seen a little boy, about ten or twelve years of age, with a long black coat, silk breeches, his hands in the pockets of the same, silver shoe buckles, a tobacco pipe in his mouth, and the whole crowned by a huge three-cornered cocked hat, under which the youth did move with a gravity of demeanour becoming his great-grandfather.

I believe the general appearance of Holland is pretty similar throughout. What I have seen has a cheerful and pleasing aspect, though, from the want of hills and vallies, it would probably soon become uninteresting. The whole country seems composed of meadows, intersected by canals, and subdivided by ditches and rows of trees. The rivers are slow and heavy in their motions, and partake much of the nature of the canals and ditches. The water is bad, but as good claret can be got for two shillings, and there is abundance of excellent milk, this loss is not

so perceptible. Notwithstanding the abundance of milk, they rarely gather any cream, at least not for daily use. It seems to be collected chiefly with a view to the formation of super-excellent cheese.

I was much delighted by the picturesque groups of the peasant girls, who assemble to milk the cattle in particular quarters of the meadows, called milking-places, or melk-plaats. Such scenes forcibly reminded me of the inimitable productions of Paul Potter, and were well worthy the efforts of that great master.

In the suburbs of Rotterdam there are a number of small gardens, in most of which are erected wooden houses, of fanciful shapes, and many colours, not unlike the gay habitations of Chinese mandarins. In these houses, the richer class of merchants, with their wives and families, drink tea in the summer evenings, particularly on the Sundays. The windows reach from the roof to the floor, and are for the most part open, so that the passing traveller has a clear view of the interior of the building, and of its inhabitants. Such parties as I have seen in the evenings, appeared to be solely employed in drinking tea, a meal from which they must derive much pleasure, if one may judge from the time which they take to it. Even in the streets, there is generally a tea party visible in at least one window of every house, and before many doors, in a fine afternoon, there is a party seated on the steps. This is more particularly the case in country towns; the men, however, in all places, still retaining their long tobacco pipes in their mouths.

With regard to the mode of travelling in Holland, I may next say a few words: Post carriages, I understand, may be every where obtained, but as in wet weather, particularly during spring and autumn, many of the roads are impassable, such a mode of proceeding, independent of the great increase of expense and trouble which it occasions, is by no means adviseable. In no country of the world, however, is there such easy and regular conveyance by water as in this, on which account I would advise all tourists to travel exclusively by the canals.

Upon inquiry, I find, that in every town there are a number of large boats

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or vessels, called treck-schuits (treck- LETTER FROM THE LATE DR M'LAGAN

schuiten), some of which start every hour, and in all directions, and convey goods, parcels, and passengers, from place to place. These vessels, of which I have now seen many in this town, may be described as large open boats, containing wooden cottages of about thirty feet long and six feet wide, with flat roofs, on which the passengers may walk in fine weather. They are placed in, and form a part of, the boat itself, and are divided by a partition into two parts. The interior division, which is by much the largest, is called the ruim. It contains the goods and baggage, and in it, as it is cheaper, the greater number of passengers take their seats. The smaller apartment, which is next the stern of the vessel, is called the roef. It is neatly fitted up, with a table in the centre, and cushions around the sides, and in it the quality are usually conveyed. It contains eight people, is furnished with one or two windows on each side, and in some a draft-board is painted on the table. In the event of one or two persons engaging the whole seats in the roef, it is only necessary to pay one-half of the price. The ruim, I should suppose, may contain upwards of thirty people.

These boats travel at the rate of one league per hour, or rather more; and the expense, including baggage, cannot much exceed a penny a mile. They are drawn by a horse, in the manner of our own canal boats, but the rope is fastened to the top of a small moveable mast, placed near the bow of the vessel. The cottage-shaped building before mentioned, does not extend the entire length of the treck-schuit, but both before and behind it there is an open space, in the former of which is placed a person who lowers the mast and unties the rope on passing other vessels, or under bridges; and the latter is appropriated to the helmsman, and such of the passengers as may prefer it to the roef or cabin.

Although the feelings of a merchant may no doubt be both acute and delightful in this most mercantile city, yet, upon the whole, there is not much to excite the attention or gratify the curiosity of a lounger.

If the weather is fine, I shall therefore start for Leyden to-morrow. X. Y. Z.

(To be continued.)

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[The following letter has been handed to us by Mr Campbell, editor of " Albyn's Anthology," in whose possession the ori ginal has been for many years, and who has also furnished us with the additional information contained in the notes to the letter.

Authentic intelligence respecting the history of Gaelic literature will always be acceptable to us, and at the present moment can scarcely fail to be interesting to many of our readers, who are looking forward with eager anxiety to the publication of the Gaelic Dictionary now compiling under the auspices of the Highland Society of Scotland. The accomplishment of this desirable and oftendefeated object, will be one of the many important public services performed by that highly respectable and patriotic body. We regret that our limits will only permit us to give one short extract from the papers they have printed, respecting the plan of the work and the progress that has been made in it. This we subjoin, along with a memorandum on Dr M Lagan's letter, (Notes A, B,) with which we have been obligingly furnished by a gentleman who has the very best access to authentic information in whatever relates to the history of Gaelic literature.

In case any of our southern readers should be inclined to regard tris subject as one of trifling importance, and our attention to it as a strong trait of nationality, we shall take the liberty to quote the opinion expressed by Dr Samuel Johnson, when the scheme of translating the Scriptures into Gaelic was strongly opposed by some individuals, from political considerations of the disadvantages of keeping up the distinctions between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of the island. "I am not very willing that any language should be totally extinguished. The similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indubitable proof of the tra duction of nations and the genealogy of mankind. They add often physical cer tainty to historical evidence; and often supply the only evidence of ancient migra tions, and of the revolutions of ages which left no written monuments behind them.”*]

Belfast, Feb. 27th, 1771.
DEAR SIR,

YOUR letter of 25th ultimo I was lately honoured with. I am sorry that my knowledge of the Galic language does not by any means come up to the notions you seem to entertain of it,

• See Letter to Mr W. Drummond, dated 1766; Boswell's Life, vol. ii. p. 142.

any more than to my own wishes; and one reason for my rejoicing at your laudable and useful undertaking, of compiling a dictionary and grammar of our mother tongue, was, that it would add to my knowledge of it. I am happy to see in the Messrs Macphersons and you, men who are not ashamed to own their native country or language, like the most of us, who, as soon as we know any thing of any other language or people, endeavour to recommend ourselves to them by denying the knowledge of, or running down, our own; because, forsooth, some of these strangers are modest and good-natured enough to do it, when, at the same time, their ignorance in these matters renders it impossible, in the nature of things, that they should be capable of judging. I often blushed, when I considered, that none of our learned, two or three excepted, ever had the public spirit to collect the roots of our language into a dictionary, or polish it, any more than our great men to patronise them; when not only Ireland and Wales, but even Cornwall, Bas-Breton, and Biscay, had several dictionaries of their dialects. Now, however, I hope to see something done to our dialect of the first language of south and west Europe, like what M. Bullet has done to the foreign dialects of it, and that future historians and antiquaries will reap from that original language and its descriptive names, &c. as well as philologists from what other languages now spoke, as well as the Latin, have borrowed from it, a light, pleasure, and advantage, they have as yet no notion of, if they choose it. If this is not done soon, our language will become as great a mystery as the religion of the Druids, particularly the names of places and other things, of which they were descriptions as well as

names.

But you have not writ for an encomium upon the language, but for materials; and I am sorry that my absence from the country where it is spoke puts it out of my power to be of much service to you in that way. Did I indeed reside in it, my zeal would probably prompt me to catch as much as I could; but in my present situation, I am as like to lose of what I have, as to add any thing to my knowledge of it.

I make no doubt but my keenness

may have led me into indiscretion already, in telling some of your society my mind upon the subject, when it was neither asked nor necessary, perhaps; but this you must attribute to my love to the subject, and my desire to inflame their zeal. To this too you must ascribe, what I am now to beg of you, namely, that you would make your plan as extensive as possible, and prosecute it with the utmost vigour, while the nation seems to be in some humour for relishing things of this nature, as well as you are to undertake it; for if any person or consideration whatever induce you to drop it now, as M'Colm* did, it is a thousand to one if it is resumed before it is too late, if at all. I wish too you could get some persons of rank and influence to patronise the undertaking, that you may be enabled to procure all the books upon the subject, and more especially to send some of your best hands to every corner of Scotland where that language is spoke, and to the Isle of Man, the language of which is a dialect of the Scots Galic, with very little mixture, beyond controversy, and nearest allied to that spoke on the confines of the Lowlands; which you may see demonstrated by a book, entitled, "The Principles and Duties of Christianity," published by the late bishop of Sodor and Man, Manks and English; only they have not followed our orthography, I suppose, because they did not know the languages to be almost the same, and they pronounce differently. Books throw light upon the living language, and vice versa. But what is already in books, particularly in dictionaries, is not so absolutely necessary, or so much your peculiar province, as the first undertakers of this kind in Scotland, as what never was; and that is a very great part of the Scots dialect of the Galic; though, at the same time, the performance should be complete, by collecting the whole, though common to us, with others, and published by them. But should the world still retain so much prejudice that you can't have such patrons, I intreat you to persist still;

Mr Malcolm, minister of Duddingston, near Edinburgh, He published a made a strenuous attempt to prove that the small glossary of the Scoto-Gaelic, and Latin language is chiefly derived from the Erse. See Reliquiæ Galcaneæ, p. 240, &c.

for I make not the least doubt but the thing will take in general. I beg also (and I think myself sure you will grant my request, and that is), that you will not reject any word that is of Celtic origin, however bad the dialect of the place wherein it is used; for it may be of vast use, as being the branch of a root, or the root of a branch, still retained in other dialects of the Celtic, though lost by us, and throwing light, when the whole is compared, the one word or dialect upon the other. When you compile your English-Galic dictionary, you may use what you reckon best first; but the Galic-English dictionary should contain every Celtic word that is or ever was used in Scotland, that can be procured, and even any words of other Celtic dialects you can meet with, if forgot by their best glossographers; only let them have the mark of their extraction, or the author from whom they are taken, as indeed they should have it in the dif

ferent shires of Scotland.

As to the best helps I know in print, I have last year sent a catalogue of them to Mr M'Nicol in Lismore* (who first told me of your design), in order to be sent to you. The greatest part of them I took from Bullet's Celtic dictionary, which, if you have it, will save you the trouble of looking for many of the rest. I have added several books he does not mention, but have omitted the book already mentioned here, and Mr Robert Kirk'st version of the Psalms. If Mr M'Nicol refuse to send you it, you shall have another copy, if necessary.

With respect to correspondents, it is absolutely necessary to have them wherever the language is spoke, as no small number of men can know the whole of it; and to this space the circle of my acquaintance is very small. Were I to tell you where the best Galic is spoke, I would perhaps men

This gentleman died a few years ago. He rendered himself at one time conspicuous by a severe and somewhat rash attack upon the great English lexicographer.

He was minister of Aberfoyle, and was a nian of very considerable learning. He prepared for the press the Irish-Gaelic Bible known by the name of "Bishop Redel's Bible," which was printed in what is called the Irish character. A curious tract of Kirk's, on the superstitions of the Gael, has been lately printed from his MS. in the Advocates Library

tion Clan-Ranold's estate;* but to you, all that is real Galic must be good. Whether the clergy are all in the use of writing the language, or will choose to undertake any thing, you must try: some, I dare say, will, when properly applied to; and they may be met with at assemblies in Edinburgh from all parts. I have spoke of it to some of them. The abilities of Messrs M'Nicol and Mr Archibald M'Arthur, many of you know as well as I. On my last journey and voyage, I saw the ministers of Campbelton, Mr Niel M'Leod, Mull, three Mr M'Aulays, brothers, the eldest at Inveraray, and the next in Ardnamorchan, all good hands; also Mr Donald M'Queen in Trotternish, Sky, Mr Charles Stewart (a writer), near Fort William, and heard of M'Intyre of Gleno,† all three excellent hands, as Mr Wodrow in Isla,‡ I suppose, would also be. I forgot also to mention Mr Martin M'Pherson, Slate, § who with his own knowledge may have some of his father's lucubrations that have not been published.

All the ministers in the Long Island have a fine opportunity, if they choose to apply. The only one I know in Lewis is Mr Wilson, who learned it grammatically, and is very obliging, as indeed I found also Mr Angus Beaton in Harris, Mr Allan M'Queen, North Uist, in whose neighbourhood is Mr Niel M'Aulay, master of the Schola Illustris, the poet M'Codrum,|| and a brother of his own writes it

* Clanranald's estate comprehends a considerable extent of the Mainland on the

north-west part of Argyleshire, besides a large portion of that chain of isles called the Long Island, Isle of Canna, &c. This widely-extended property is said to contain a population of between 11,000 and 12,000 souls, most of whom are Papists.

+ Gleno, the late chief of the clan MacIntyre, left behind him a curious collection of Gaelic poems, which, it is believed, is still extant.

Mr Wodrow published, in 1769, some translations, in English verse, of poems from M Pherson's Ossian.

§ Son of the well-known author of the Dissertation on Gaelic Antiquities.

The poet M'Codrum was somewhat advanced in life before he discovered his poetic vein. In the report of the committee of the Highland Society of Scotland on the authenticity of Ossian's poems, (Append. p. 95,) is recorded a sarcastic reply of his to James M Pherson, the celebrated translator of Desinu

*

pretty well. Mr Angus M'Neil, South Uist, is a genteel man, and the language around him is fine: his father too, Mr M'Neil of Watersay, in Barra, knows more of the language, antiquities, manners, and customs of that country, than any man I know; being a very old man, of great reading and sense, and endowed with a very retentive memory. He has also many fragments of the famous family of MacMhuirich's poems, who were hereditary poets to the family of ClanRanold for many generations, were regularly sent to Ireland for their education, and of consequence wrote poems in that dialect; insomuch, that had not the authors been known, and their names to the pieces, both Scots and Irish would have sworn them to be really Irishmen; and whether this is not really the case with other compositions, I shan't say. Mr M'Aulay, minister of Barra, you may see at next assembly, and offer him my compli

ments.

The person who told you that I had a Marine Vocabulary, forgot; for I only told him, I begged some of my acquaintances to get me such a thing, as being most wanted of all; wherein if I succeed, you shall have a copy. The few things I collected you shall have in another letter; but they are little to what you must have from that part of the world, and must be strictly "examined before inserted. I have got a variety of songst in different places,

Mr Campbell, when collecting materials for his interesting work, entitled, "Albyn's Anthology," in autumn 1815, was informed by different persons, that all these *"fragments," &c. were left in the possession of Clanranald, grandfather of the present chieftain. It is not known what has now become of them.

+Dr M'Lagan was himself both a poetical and musical composer, and is supposed to have left behind him many valuable and curious materials, together with the "variety of songs" above mentioned. These, it is hoped, are still extant, in the possession of his family; and his son, the Rev. James "M'Lagan, is well qualified to estimate their value, and to make use of them to the best advantage. Mr Campbell has in his poseession one original melody, with appropriate verses, composed by Dr M'Lagan in honour of the exploits of the gallant 42d regiment in Egypt, which will appear in the second volume of his Anthology, now printing. At the time he wrote this letter from Belfast, Dr M'Lagan was chaplain to

and of different degrees of merit ; but as the expense of time and postage would be great, as I am now situated, you can procure them more easily by means of some of your own members, and others at home. However, if you mention any particular ones which I, and not they, have, I shall send them, with whatever else is in my power; only let me hear now and then what you would have me do; and if you would let me know a little of your success in your laudable undertaking, it would be a spur, if at any time my zeal should flag. With my whole soul I wish you life and health to see your design executed, and to enjoy the satisfaction and advantages of it. And em in sincerity, Dr Sir, your most obedient servant,

JAMES MLAGAN. To John M'Naughton, Esq. Preses of the Galic Society, Edin.

Note A.-In reference to the late Dr M'Lagan's letter, it may be mentioned, that the compilation of a Gaelic dictionary and grammar, which was projected by some gentlemen at Edinburgh, who, it would for these and relative objects, does not apseem, had formed themselves into a society pear to have been prosecuted at the time: from what cause it was dropped is not known,-probably from want of funds. The design was not, however, relinquished. Some time afterwards, a considerable number of the clergy of Highland parishes, and Gaelic language, resolved upon the publisome other gentlemen conversant in the cation of a proper dictionary. For this purpose each of them had one, two, or more letters of the alphabet assigned to him, the words under which he was to contribute. Their several contributions were to be after

wards revised, corrected, and enlarged, by a committee of their number, previous to publication.-Among those principally concerned in the undertaking were the Rev. Dr Stewart of Luss; the late Dr Smith of Campbelton; the said Dr M'Lagan, then minister of Blair-Athol; Dr Stewart of Strachur; the Rev. Mr M Nicol, Lismore; Mr Campbell, Kilfinichan; Mr M'Queen, and Mr M'Intyre of Glenoe, &c. Several of the contributors to the work made considerable progress in the parts assigned to them; but from want of funds, the death of some of those concerned, or other causes, the desirable object in view was not attained.

When the Highland Society of Scotland came to the resolution to have a dictionary of the Gaelic language upon a comprehen

the 42d, then commonly called the Black Watch. He was successor in this office to the celebrated Dr Adam Ferguson

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