The Ayrshire Legatees

There was a great tea-drinking held in the Kirkgate of Irvine, at the

house of Miss Mally Glencairn; and at that assemblage of rank, beauty,

and fashion, among other delicacies of the season, several new-come-home

Clyde skippers, roaring from Greenock and Port-Glasgow, were served

up--but nothing contributed more to the entertainment of the evening than

a proposal, on the part of Miss Mally, that those present who had

received letters from the Pringles should read them for the benefit of

the company.

This was, no doubt, a preconcerted scheme between her and

Miss Isabella Tod, to hear what Mr. Andrew Pringle had said to his friend

Mr. Snodgrass, and likewise what the Doctor himself had indited to Mr.

Micklewham; some rumour having spread of the wonderful escapes and

adventures of the family in their journey and voyage to London. Had

there not been some prethought of this kind, it was not indeed probable,

that both the helper and session-clerk of Garnock could have been there

together, in a party, where it was an understood thing, that not only

Whist and Catch Honours were to be played, but even obstreperous Birky

itself, for the diversion of such of the company as were not used to

gambling games. It was in consequence of what took place at this Irvine

route, that we were originally led to think of collecting the letters.

LETTER VIII

Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod

LONDON.

MY DEAR BELL--It was my heartfelt intention to keep a regular journal of

all our proceedings, from the sad day on which I bade a long adieu to my

native shades--and I persevered with a constancy becoming our dear and

youthful friendship, in writing down everything that I saw, either rare

or beautiful, till the hour of our departure from Leith. In that

faithful register of my feelings and reflections as a traveller, I

described our embarkation at Greenock, on board the steam-boat,--our

sailing past Port-Glasgow, an insignificant town, with a steeple;--the

stupendous rock of Dumbarton Castle, that Gibraltar of antiquity;--our

landing at Glasgow;--my astonishment at the magnificence of that opulent

metropolis of the muslin manufacturers; my brother's remark, that the

punch-bowls on the roofs of the Infirmary, the Museum, and the Trades

Hall, were emblematic of the universal estimation in which that

celebrated mixture is held by all ranks and degrees--learned, commercial,

and even medical, of the inhabitants;--our arrival at Edinburgh--my

emotion on beholding the Castle, and the visionary lake which may be

nightly seen from the windows of Princes Street, between the Old and New

Town, reflecting the lights of the lofty city beyond--with a thousand

other delightful and romantic circumstances, which render it no longer

surprising that the Edinburgh folk should be, as they think themselves,

the most accomplished people in the world. But, alas! from the moment I

placed my foot on board that cruel vessel, of which the very idea is

anguish, all thoughts were swallowed up in suffering-swallowed, did I

say? Ah, my dear Bell, it was the odious reverse--but imagination alone

can do justice to the subject. Not, however, to dwell on what is past,

during the whole time of our passage from Leith, I was unable to think,

far less to write; and, although there was a handsome young Hussar

officer also a passenger, I could not even listen to the elegant

compliments which he seemed disposed to offer by way of consolation, when

he had got the better of his own sickness. Neither love nor valour can

withstand the influence of that sea-demon. The interruption thus

occasioned to my observations made me destroy my journal, and I have now

to write to you only about London--only about London! What an expression

for this human universe, as my brother calls it, as if my weak feminine

pen were equal to the stupendous theme!