The Ayrshire Legatees

LETTER V

The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and

Session-Clerk, Garnock

LONDON, 49 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND.

DEAR SIR--On the first Sunday forthcoming after the receiving hereof, you

will not fail to recollect in the remembering prayer, that we return

thanks for our safe arrival in London, after a dangerous voyage. Well,

indeed, is it ordained that we should pray for those who go down to the

sea in ships, and do business on the great deep; for what me and mine

have come through is unspeakable, and the hand of Providence was visibly

manifested.

On the day of our embarkation at Leith, a fair wind took us onward at a

blithe rate for some time; but in the course of that night the bridle of

the tempest was slackened, and the curb of the billows loosened, and the

ship reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and no one could stand

therein. My wife and daughter lay at the point of death; Andrew Pringle,

my son, also was prostrated with the grievous affliction; and the very

soul within me was as if it would have been cast out of the body.

On the following day the storm abated, and the wind blew favourable; but

towards the heel of the evening it again came vehement, and there was no

help unto our distress. About midnight, however, it pleased HIM, whose

breath is the tempest, to be more sparing with the whip of His

displeasure on our poor bark, as she hirpled on in her toilsome journey

through the waters; and I was enabled, through His strength, to lift my

head from the pillow of sickness, and ascend the deck, where I thought of

Noah looking out of the window in the ark, upon the face of the desolate

flood, and of Peter walking on the sea; and I said to myself, it matters

not where we are, for we can be in no place where Jehovah is not there

likewise, whether it be on the waves of the ocean, or the mountain tops,

or in the valley and shadow of death.

The third day the wind came contrary, and in the fourth, and the fifth,

and the sixth, we were also sorely buffeted; but on the night of the

sixth we entered the mouth of the river Thames, and on the morning of the

seventh day of our departure, we cast anchor near a town called

Gravesend, where, to our exceeding great joy, it pleased Him, in whom

alone there is salvation, to allow us once more to put our foot on the

dry land.

When we had partaken of a repast, the first blessed with the blessing of

an appetite, from the day of our leaving our native land, we got two

vacancies in a stage-coach for my wife and daughter; but with Andrew

Pringle, my son, I was obligated to mount aloft on the outside. I had

some scruple of conscience about this, for I was afraid of my decorum. I

met, however, with nothing but the height of discretion from the other

outside passengers, although I jealoused that one of them was a light

woman. Really I had no notion that the English were so civilised; they

were so well bred, and the very duddiest of them spoke such a fine style

of language, that when I looked around on the country, I thought myself

in the land of Canaan. But it's extraordinary what a power of drink the

coachmen drink, stopping and going into every change-house, and yet

behaving themselves with the greatest sobriety. And then they are all so

well dressed, which is no doubt owing to the poor rates. I am thinking,

however, that for all they cry against them, the poor rates are but a

small evil, since they keep the poor folk in such food and raiment, and

out of the temptations to thievery; indeed, such a thing as a common

beggar is not to be seen in this land, excepting here and there a sorner

or a ne'er-do-weel.