The Ayrshire Legatees

On the fourteenth day after the departure of the family from the manse,

the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass, who was appointed to officiate during the

absence of the Doctor, received the following letter from his old chum,

Mr. Andrew Pringle. It would appear that the young advocate is not so

solid in the head as some of his elder brethren at the Bar; and therefore

many of his flights and observations must be taken with an allowance on

the score of his youth.

LETTER IV

Andrew Pringle, Esq., Advocate, to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass

LONDON.

MY DEAR FRIEND--We have at last reached London, after a stormy passage of

seven days. The accommodation in the smacks looks extremely inviting in

port, and in fine weather, I doubt not, is comfortable, even at sea; but

in February, and in such visitations of the powers of the air as we have

endured, a balloon must be a far better vehicle than all the vessels that

have been constructed for passengers since the time of Noah. In the

first place, the waves of the atmosphere cannot be so dangerous as those

of the ocean, being but "thin air"; and I am sure they are not so

disagreeable; then the speed of the balloon is so much greater,--and it

would puzzle Professor Leslie to demonstrate that its motions are more

unsteady; besides, who ever heard of sea-sickness in a balloon? the

consideration of which alone would, to any reasonable person actually

suffering under the pains of that calamity, be deemed more than an

equivalent for all the little fractional difference of danger between the

two modes of travelling. I shall henceforth regard it as a fine

characteristic trait of our national prudence, that, in their journies to

France and Flanders, the Scottish witches always went by air on

broom-sticks and benweeds, instead of venturing by water in sieves, like

those of England. But the English are under the influence of a maritime

genius.

When we had got as far up the Thames as Gravesend, the wind and tide came

against us, so that the vessel was obliged to anchor, and I availed

myself of the circumstance, to induce the family to disembark and go to

London by LAND; and I esteem it a fortunate circumstance that we did so,

the day, for the season, being uncommonly fine. After we had taken some

refreshment, I procured places in a stage-coach for my mother and sister,

and, with the Doctor, mounted myself on the outside. My father's

old-fashioned notions boggled a little at first to this arrangement,

which he thought somewhat derogatory to his ministerial dignity; but his

scruples were in the end overruled.