'tomed to such scenes, dived beneath the table. 'A moment after, a man's hand, struck off with a 'back sword, feil beside him. The minstrel secured 'it carefully in his pocket, as he would have done any other loose moveable; sagely observing, the owner would miss it sorely next morning.'

In a note on the third canto of Marmion, we are entertained with the narrative of a conflict maintained by an officer and his servant against an apparition. How the combat terminated,' says the author, I do not exactly remember, and have 'not the book by me; but I think the spirit made ' to the intruders on his mansion the usual proposal 'that they should renounce their redemption; ' which being declined, he was obliged to retreat.' The following description, among many others in the same style, occurs in Paul's Letters. A

good bluff quarter-master of dragoons complained 'to me of the discomforts which they experienced 'from the condition to which the country had been ' reduced, but in a tone and manner which led me to conjecture, that my honest friend did not sym'pathise with the peasant, who had been plundered ' of his wine and brandy, so much as he censured 'the Prussians for leaving none for their faithful 'allies.

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"O noble thirst-yet greedy to drink all."

In the meanwhile, it is no great derogation from

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'the discipline of the English army to remark, 'that some old schoolboy practices were not forgotten; and that where there occurred a halt, and fruit trees chanced to be in the vicinity, they in'stantly were loaded like the emblematic tree in 'the frontispiece to Lily's Grammar, only with 'soldiers instead of scholars; and surrounded by ' their wives, who held their aprons to receive the 'fruit, instead of satchels, as in the emblem chosen ' by that learned grammarian.'—Letter XI.

In the novels, almost every comic passage, of the narrative kind, is characterized by this burlesque rotundity of diction. I will offer a specimen from the scene where Caleb Balderstone, after stealing the cooper's wild-fowl, (an incident related with incomparable humour,) is overtaken on the road by his foreman. I have heard somewhere ' a story of an elderly gentleman, who was pursued by a bear that had gotten loose from its muzzle, ' until completely exhausted. In a fit of desperation, ' he faced round upon Bruin. and lifted his cane; ' at the sight of which the instinct of discipline prevailed, and the animal, instead of tearing him 'to pieces, rose upon his hind-legs, and instantly began to shuffle a saraband. Not less than the 'joyful surprise of the senior, who had supposed ' himself in the extremity of peril from which he I was thus unexpectedly relieved, was that of our 'excellent friend Caleb, when he found the pur

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suer intended to add to his prize, instead of bereaving him of it. He recovered his latitude, ' however, instantly, so soon as the foreman, stoop'ing from his nag, where he sat perched betwixt the two barrels, whispered in his ear, If ony 'thing about Peter Puncheon's place could be airted their way, John Girder would mak it 'better to the Master of Ravenswood than a pair ' of new gloves,'' &c.-Bride of Lammermoor, Vol. I. ch. 12.

Baillie Macwheeble, when dining with the Baron of Bradwardine, either out of more respect, or in order to preserve that proper declination of person, • which showed a sense that he was in the

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presence of his patron-sat upon the edge of his chair, placed at three feet distance from the table, and • achieved a communication with his plate by pro'jecting his person towards it in a line which 'obliqued from the bottom of his spine, so that 'the person who sat opposite to him could only see the foretop of his riding periwig. This stooping position might have been inconvenient to another person, but long habit made it, whether seated or walking, perfectly easy to the worthy • Baillie. In the latter posture, it occasioned, no doubt, an unseemly projection of the person to'ward those who happened to walk behind; but 'those being at all times his inferiors, (for Mr.

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'Macwheeble was very scrupulous in giving place

' to all others), he cared very little what inference ' of contempt or slight regard they might derive 'from the circumstance. Hence, when he waddled across the court to and from his old grey poney, • he somewhat resembled a turnspit walking upon ' its hind legs.'—Waverley, Vol. I. c. 11.

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It may be observed, from some of the examples just quoted, that the two authors exactly resemble each other in their manner of relating a short story. I confine the parallel at present to short stories, because the main narrative of the novels themselves is formed upon too expanded a scale, is too diffuse, too dramatic, and too much ornamented to bear comparison with those brief sketches of popular tradition which are scattered through the notes and prefaces of the author of Marmion for the mere purpose of illustration. We may, however, match this latter class of stories with some brief episodical narratives which now and then occur in the novels, and the result will, I think, favour my criticism. Such are the Legend of Martin Waldeck *, the narrative of Allan M'Aulay's feud with the Children of the Mist+, and the beautiful tale of Lord Ravenswood and the Naiad, in The Bride of Lammermoor 1.

* Antiquary, vol. ii. ch. 3. + Legend of Montrose, fifth chapter.

Vol. i. ch. 5.

Nor should it pass unnoticed, that the concise historical and political summaries presented by the author of Marmion in his capacities of biographer and editor, bear in all respects a close resemblance to those with which the novelist is accustomed to usher in his learned and imposing fictions.

Among other peculiarities of style common to both these authors, I regret to mention their extreme negligence, and frequent offences against the simplest and most general rules of composition. This is indeed an age in which many persons write well, but few revise carefully; and it must be owned that the authors of Waverley and Marmion, while they stand pre-eminent in their generation as good writers, are scarcely less conspicuous as careless revisers. To particularize their transgressions in this respect would be as irksome to myself as I am sure it would be displeasing to you; nor should I have thought such faults worth notice if they had been only of the common magnitude and frequency. I am no mighty hunter' after tautologies and cacophonies, but in the present instance, even if we shut our eyes to these blemishes, it is impossible not to see that worse remain behind. A few quiet escapes of national idiom might well have been excused (and our authors are not very often to blame on this head), but who can be patient when Queen Elizabeth herself utters Scoticisms, and her courtiers adopt the

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