The Ayrshire Legatees

At last the organ began to sound, and we went into the place of worship;

but oh, Mr. Micklewham, yon is a thin kirk. There was not a hearer forby

Mrs. Pringle and me, saving and excepting the relics of popery that

assisted at the service. What was said, I must, however, in verity

confess, was not far from the point. But it's still a comfort to see

that prelatical usurpations are on the downfall; no wonder that there is

no broad at the door to receive the collection for the poor, when no

congregation entereth in. You may, therefore, tell Mr. Craig, and it

will gladden his heart to hear the tidings, that the great Babylonian

madam is now, indeed, but a very little cutty.

On our return home to our lodgings, we found Andrew Pringle, my son, and

Rachel, in great consternation about our absence. When we told them that

we had been at worship, I saw they were both deeply affected; and I was

pleased with my children, the more so, as you know I have had my doubts

that Andrew Pringle's principles have not been strengthened by the

reading of the Edinburgh Review. Nothing more passed at that time, for

we were disturbed by a Captain Sabre that came up with us in the smack,

calling to see how we were after our journey; and as he was a civil

well-bred young man, which I marvel at, considering he's a Hussar

dragoon, we took a coach, and went to see the lions, as he said; but,

instead of taking us to the Tower of London, as I expected, he ordered

the man to drive us round the town. In our way through the city he

showed us the Temple Bar, where Lord Kilmarnock's head was placed after

the Rebellion, and pointed out the Bank of England and Royal Exchange.

He said the steeple of the Exchange was taken down shortly ago--and that

the late improvements at the Bank were very grand. I remembered having

read in the Edinburgh Advertiser, some years past, that there was a

great deal said in Parliament about the state of the Exchange, and the

condition of the Bank, which I could never thoroughly understand. And,

no doubt, the taking own of an old building, and the building up of a new

one so near together, must, in such a crowded city as this, be not only a

great detriment to business, but dangerous to the community at large.

After we had driven about for more than two hours, and neither seen lions

nor any other curiosity, but only the outside of houses, we returned

home, where we found a copperplate card left by Mr. Argent, the colonel's

agent, with the name of his private dwelling-house. Both me and Mrs.

Pringle were confounded at the sight of this thing, and could not but

think that it prognosticated no good; for we had seen the gentleman

himself in the forenoon. Andrew Pringle, my son, could give no

satisfactory reason for such an extraordinary manifestation of anxiety to

see us; so that, after sitting on thorns at our dinner, I thought that we

should see to the bottom of the business. Accordingly, a hackney was

summoned to the door, and me and Andrew Pringle, my son, got into it, and

told the man to drive to second in the street where Mr. Argent lived, and

which was the number of his house. The man got up, and away we went;

but, after he had driven an awful time, and stopping and inquiring at

different places, he said there was no such house as Second's in the

street; whereupon Andrew Pringle, my son, asked him what he meant, and

the man said that he supposed it was one Second's Hotel, or Coffee-house,

that we wanted. Now, only think of the craftiness of the ne'er-da-weel;

it was with some difficulty that I could get him to understand, that

second was just as good as number two; for Andrew Pringle, my son, would

not interfere, but lay back in the coach, and was like to split his sides

at my confabulating with the hackney man. At long and length we got to

the house, and were admitted to Mr. Argent, who was sitting by himself in

his library reading, with a plate of oranges, and two decanters with wine

before him. I explained to him, as well as I could, my surprise and

anxiety at seeing his card, at which he smiled, and said, it was merely a

sort of practice that had come into fashion of late years, and that,

although we had been at his counting-house in the morning, he considered

it requisite that he should call on his return from the city. I made the

best excuse I could for the mistake; and the servant having placed

glasses on the table, we were invited to take wine. But I was grieved to

think that so respectable a man should have had the bottles before him by

himself, the more especially as he said his wife and daughters had gone

to a party, and that he did not much like such sort of things. But for

all that, we found him a wonderful conversible man; and Andrew Pringle,

my son, having read all the new books put out at Edinburgh, could speak

with him on any subject. In the course of conversation they touched upon

politick economy, and Andrew Pringle, my son, in speaking about cash in

the Bank of England, told him what I had said concerning the alterations

of the Royal Exchange steeple, with which Mr. Argent seemed greatly

pleased, and jocosely proposed as a toast,--"May the country never suffer

more from the alterations in the Exchange, than the taking down of the

steeple." But as Mrs. Pringle is wanting to send a bit line under the

same frank to her cousin, Miss Mally Glencairn, I must draw to a

conclusion, assuring you, that I am, dear sir, your sincere friend and

pastor, ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.