the spring, but in the company of his faithful attendant, the Titling, a very small bird, in whose nest I have always found her patron's egg. I have frequently discovered these nests containing four small eggs, and one large one. I have watched their progress, but never yet could ascertain what became of the small birds, as, the moment the young cuckoo emerged from his shell, all appearance of birds or eggs was removed from the nest. It was our belief as boys, that the cuckoo devoured the young of his foster-mother. I should wish to know if Physicus has made any observations on this subject.

I am inclined to think, that, although the cuckoo deposits only one egg in each nest, yet that he intrudes upon several nests at the same time; and I have met with a remark somewhere, that a cuckoo's egg had been found in a nest into which the bird could never have entered to deposit it in the natural way, so that it must first have been laid by the side of the nest, and then placed in it.

We often meet in our aviaries with what are called mule canary birds, that is, the offspring of the grey linnet and the canary. In the country, where the domestic fowls are accustomed to wander to a considerable distance from the farm-yard, I believe it is no uncommon occurrence for a chicken that is evidently the offspring of the partridge and common hen, to make its appearance. Indeed, I am inclined to think that the breed between fowls of the same genus is of tener crossed than we are aware of.

It is a common practice in the country to set a hen, as it is called, upon ducks' eggs, and the agony which she suffers when she sees her young charge first take to their natural element, the water, has often been observed and remarked upon. The following anecdote may be relied upon, as the circumstance was observed by a gentleman of science and of high rank; and it occurred in the town or suburbs of Stirling. A hen, which had been employed to hatch a duck's eggs, in the neighbourhood of a dyer's mill, where there was a small pond, was observed to exhibit the usual symptoms of terror and alarm when the ducklings first took to the water, but, by degrees, she became quite reconeiled to their habits, and was accus

VOL. II.

tomed, in great quietness, to enjoy herself on the banks while they gamboled in the pool. For two or three years she uniformly brought out ducklings, and, at last, as regularly led them to the water as their natural dam would have done. In the course of time, however, she brought out a breed of chickens. These she immediately led to the side of the pool also, but, when she found they did not enter the water, she became quite uneasy,-called them close to it,-made every motion for them to enter it,— flew over to the beetling stone in the centre of the pond, and then called on them to follow, but all to no purpose. When she found that nothing would entice them to enter the water, she actually seized upon one or two of them, and threw them into it, and, if she had not been prevented, it is believed would have drowned her whole progeny. This shows how much the native habits, of even fowls, may be changed by circumstances, and proves, in some degree, the existence of memory, without judgment, in the feathered tribes.

We have had a great many remarks of late on the sagacity of dogs. I don't find, Mr Editor, that the anecdote which I am about to relate, and the truth of which may be relied upon, has been surpassed by any thing that has yet appeared. A gentleman in the county of Stirling kept a greyhound and a pointer, and, being fond of coursing, the pointer was accustomed to find the hares, and the greyhound to catch them. When the season was over, it was found that the dogs were in the habit of going out by themselves, and of killing the hares for their own amusement. To prevent this, a large iron ring was fastened to the pointer's neck by a leather collar, and hung down, so as to prevent the dog from running or jumping over dikes, &c. The animals, however, continued to stroll out to the fields together; and, one day, the gentleman, suspecting all was right, resolved to watch them, and, to his surprise, found, that the moment they thought they were unobserved, the greyhound took up the iron ring in his mouth, and, carrying it, they set off to the hills, and began to search for hares, as usual. They were followed, and it was observed, that, whenever the pointer scented the hare,

Tt

not

SOME of our readers may probably recollect that soon after the publication of Mr Fox's Historical Fragment, a quarto volume of Observations" on that work appeared from the pen of the late Right Honourable George Rose. The professed object of Mr Rose's book was to defend the character of Sir Patrick Hume (afterwards Earl of Marchmont) from certain injurious imputations which he conceived to have been thrown upon it in Mr Fox's account of Argyle's invasion; and this allegation, though utterly unfounded, as it turned out, afforded a sort of plausible pretence for a most elaborate and ungracious, though singularly ineffective, attack on the posthumous work of our great statesman. Such are the humiliating effects produced by the littleness of party jealousy and resentment, even on minds naturally well disposed! And we feel the more regret on being obliged to advert to the present instance, as the late Treasurer of the Navy appears to have been not only a person of an amiable and liberal disposition in private life, but on several occasions, entitled to our respect and gratitude for his public exertions. As might have been expected, his heavy quarto speedily sunk back into that state of "dull for getfulness" from which it had been for a moment rescued by the indignant refutation of Serjeant Heywood, and the contemptuous exposure of the Edinburgh Review; and it is now only to be found, we believe, in a few

public libraries, and the collections of the curious. There is, however, an appendix subjoined to it, containing one or two original papers, which have not as yet appeared elsewhere, but which well deserve to be better known; and it is to one of these, intitled "Lady Murray's Narrative,' that we wish at present to draw the attention of our readers.

This Narrative consists of several copious extracts from an unpublished MS. written by a lady of the Jerviswood family, and now in the possession of the present Mr Baillie. The writer, Lady Murray, was the daughter of the Honourable George Baillie and Lady Grizzel Hume, and consequently the grandchild of the celebrated Robert Baillie, and of Patrick, first Earl of Marchmont. She married Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope; but the union proving an unhappy one, she latterly resided in her father's house; and there wrote the MS. referred to.

Lady Murray gives this little history of family sufferings and adventures chiefly from the information of her mother, who had a principal share in all of them; and whose kindly, innocent, and light-hearted character gives the narrative its most endearing charm. The annals of fiction scarcely afford any thing more interesting, or more simply and affectingly told, than the account here given by the writer of the origin and progress of her father and mother's attachment; and we regret, exceedingly, that it is not in our power to relate the whole in the original words of the narrative.

The elder Jerviswood and Sir Patrick Hume had been long intimate friends, and very strictly connected from be ing of the same way of thinking in religion and politics. They were also associated in the same patriotic designs for defending the liberties of their country. When Mr Baillie was first imprisoned, Sir Patrick was extremely anxious to communicate with him privately; but owing to the jealousy with which his own conduct was watched, and the closeness with which Baillie was guarded, he found it impossible, by the ordinary means, to effect his purpose. In this strait, he sent his daughter Grizzel, (then a child little more than twelve years of age,) from Redbraes Castle to Edinburgh, with instructions to obtain ad

mittance unsuspectedly, if possible, into the prison; to deliver a letter to Baillie; and to bring back from him such intelligence as she could. She succeeded in this difficult enterprise; and having, on this occasion, met with Mr Baillie's son, the intimacy and attachment was formed, which was afterwards completed by their marriage. Soon after this Sir Patrick Hume was himself imprisoned; first in Dunbarton, and afterwards in Stirling Castle; and during his tedious confinement, this exemplary daughter made repeated journeys from Berwickshire to carry him intelligence, or administer to his comfort. A short respite to these exertions was afforded by the temporary liberation of her father and his friend; but it was only the prelude to more arduous trials.

Though the iniquitous trial and execution of Robert Baillie of Jerviswood must be familiar to all who have attentively perused the contemporary historians of that period, yet, as we believe the character of this excellent man is but little known to general readers, we shall introduce a few particulars respecting him, as a suitable introduction to the quotations that follow.-A few years after the defeat of the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, Baillie and some other noble-spirited Scotsmen,* roused by the intolerable oppression to which the country was subjected, and alarmed by the bloody career and bigoted principles of James Duke of York, had associated themselves with several patriotic gentlemen in England, to devise means for excluding that Prince from the succession to the Crown. † The design was prematurely discovered, and denounced, of course, by the ruling party, under

Among these were his three intimate friends, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, Fletcher of Salton, and Pringle of Torwoodlee. The first two lived long after the Revolution, enjoying in security the respect and distinction they had so honourably acquired; the last, of whose virtues and sufferings Wodrow has preserved an interesting memorial, died a few months after the successful issue of that important enterprise.

This was unquestionably the legitimate and principal object of the conspiraey; though unfortunately Shaftesbury and some others were privy to it, who were men of a very different stamp, and probably influenced by less reputable motives.

the name of the "Rye-house Plot," as an abominable and traitorous conspiracy to assassinate the king and overturn the throne. Many of the best men in both kingdoms were apprehended; and bribery and torture were unsparingly employed upon the inferior agents to force on convictions of treason against the principals: and it was for this "plot," as every reader knows, and by the most nefarious perversion of justice, that Lord Russel and Algernon Sidney were brought to the block. Robert Baillie was a worthy associate of these glorious men. On being first arrested, he appears to have been carried to London; but there not being sufficient evidence to criminate him by the English law, he was brought back to be tried in Scotland; and most shamefully condemned,-chiefly upon some confessions wrung from his friend Carstairs under torture, and obtained upon the most solemn assurances that they should not be adduced as evidence against any of the accused.

"Through his long confinement, and harsh treatment when in prison,' says Wodrow, "this good man turned very sickly and tender; and it was reckoned almost certain by all, that, had the managers spared this gentleman a few weeks longer, they would have been rid of him by a natural death, and escaped the indelible blot of inhumanity and barbarity to so excellent a person. He was evidently a-dying when tried before the Justiciary, and was obliged to appear in his night-gown before them, and scarce able to stand when he spake; and yet he was kept in the pannel for ten hours, and behoved to take cordials several times; and next day he was carried in a chair, in his nightgown, to the scaffold."t

During his illness, his wife and sister had been allowed occasionally to attend upon him, on condition of being shut up as close prisoners along with him; but even this indulgence, obtained with difficulty from the "tender mercies" of his persecutors, was repeatedly withdrawn; "and he afterwards grew worse," says his venerable historian, "in part, no doubt,

from his being deprived of the care of these excellent ladies." After a very full and most interesting account of his trial, with the pleadings on both sides, the same author continues:— "I wish I could give as good an account of the moving speech Mr Baily had to the inquest, and the home thrusts he gave the Lord Advocate; but I can only say, he appealed to the Advocate's conscience whether he was not satisfied as to his innocence, and had not owned so much to himself; which the other acknowledged, but added, he acted now by order from the Government; and to the Advocate and Judges, he, like a dying man, most pathetically disclaimed any access to, or knowledge of any design against the King or his brother's life; but added, if his life must go for his essays to prevent a Popish Succession, he owned them, and heartily parted with his life, as a testimony against a Papist's mounting the throne.' The verdict of the jury was brought in at an early hour the following morning; upon the opening of which, "The Lords decerned and adjudged the said Mr Robert Baily of Jerviswood, to be taken to the market-cross of Edinburgh, this 24th day of December, 'twixt two and four in the afternoon, and there to be hanged on a gibbet till he be dead, and his head to be cut off, and his body to be quartered in four, and his head to be affixed upon the Netherbow Port of Edinburgh, one of his quarters on the tolbooth of Jedburgh, another on the tolbooth of Lanark, a third on the tolbooth of Ayr, and a fourth on the tolbooth of Glasgow; and ordain his name, fame, memory, and honours to be extinct, his blood to be tainted, &c. as in common form; which was pronounced for doom."-When his sentence was intimated to him, he said, "My Lords, the time is short, the sentence is sharp, but I thank my God who hath made me as fit to die as ye are to live." We must refer our readers to Wodrow for other interesting particulars respecting this excellent man, who seems to have combined in his character the highest qualities of the patriot and the saint. It is much to be regretted, that no memoir of his life has yet been given to the public,

* Hist. of Ch, of Scot. Vol. II. p. 398.

in any work of easy access or popular form.

Lady Murray, in the narrative now before us, mentions, that her father, (Baillie's eldest son,) then in his nineteenth year, had hastened home from Holland, where he was prosecuting his education, to attend his father's trial; and he arrived to witness his barbarous execution. She adds, that, previous to this period, he had displayed a very lively and mirthful disposition, but the deep impression left upon his mind by this terrible scene, gave to his deportment an air of thoughtful and solemn gravity which he scarcely ever afterwards laid aside. -But we now gratefully turn to the Narrative itself; the first extract of which in Mr Rose's Appendix, commences about this period. Lady Murray is speaking of her mother, Lady Grizzel Hume:

"After persecution began afresh, and my grandfather Baillie, again in prison, her father [Sir Patrick Hume] thought it necessary to keep concealed, and soon found he had too good reason for so doing; parties being continually sent out in search of him, and often to his own house, to the terror of all

in it, though not from any fear for his safety, whom they imagined at a great distance from home, for no soul knew where he was but my grandmother, and my mother, except one man, a carpenter, called Jamie Winter, who used to work in the house, and lived a mile off, on whose fidelity they thought they could depend, and were not deceived. The frequent examinations and oaths put to servants, in order to make discoveries, were so strict, they durst not run the risque of trusting any of them. By the assistance of this ried in the night to the burying-place, a man, they got a bed and bed-clothes carvault under ground at Polwarth Church, a mile from the house, where he was concealed a month, and had only for light an open slit at the one end, through which nobody could see what was below. She went every night by herself at midnight, to carry him victuals and drink; and stayed with him as long as she could to get home before day. In all this time, my grandand cheerfulness of mind, that he confather showed the same constant composure tinued to possess to his death, which was qualities she inherited from him in a high at the age of eighty-four; all which good degree. Often did they laugh heartily in that doleful habitation, at different accidents that happened. She at that time had a terror for a church-yard, especially in the dark, as is not uncommon at her age, by idle nursery stories; but when en

6

gaged by concern for her father, she stumbled over the graves every night alone, without fear of any kind entering her thoughts, but for soldiers and parties in search of him, which the least noise or motion of a leaf put her in terror for. The minister's house was near the church; the first night she went, his dogs kept such a barking, as put her in the utmost fear of a discovery; my grandmother sent for the minister the next day, and, under pretence of a mad dog, got him to hang all his dogs. There was also difficulty of getting victuals to carry him without the servants suspecting; the only way it was done, was by stealing it off her plate at dinner into her lap. Many a diverting story she has told about this, and other things of a like nature. Her father liked sheep's head, and while the children were eating their broth, she had conveyed most of one into her lap; when her brother Sandy (the late Lord Marchmont") had done, he looked up with astonishment, and said, Mother will ye look at Grizzel; while we have been eating our broth, she has eat up the whole sheep's head.' This occasioned so much mirth among them, that her father at night was greatly entertained by it, and desired Sandy might have a share in the next. I need not multiply stories of this kind, of which I know many. His great comfort and constant entertainment (for he had no light to read by) was repeating Buchanan's Psalms, which he had by heart from beginning to end, and retained them to his dying day. Two years before he died, which was in the year 1724, I was witness to his desiring my mother to take up that book, which, amongst others, always lay upon his table, and bid her try if he had forgot his psalms, by naming any one she would have him repeat; and by casting her eye over it, she would know if he was right, though she did not understand it; and he miss't not a word in any place she named to him; and said they had been the great comfort of his life, by night and day on all occasions. As the gloomy habitation my grandfather was in, was not to be long endured but from necessity, they were contriving other places of safety for him; amongst others, particularly one under a bed which drew out, in a ground floor, in a room of which my mother kept the key; she and the same man worked in the night, making a hole in the earth, after lifting the boards, which they did by scratching it up with their hands, not to make any noise, till she had left not a nail upon her fingers; she helping the man to carry the earth as they dug it, in a sheet on his back out at the window into the garden; he then made a box

The second Earl, whose elder brother was then living.

at his own house, large enough for her father to lie in, with bed and bed-clothes, and bored holes in the boards for air. When all this was finished, for it was long about, she thought herself the most secure happy creature alive. When it had stood the trial for a month of no water coming into it, which was feared from being so low, and every day examined by my mo. ther, and the holes for air made clear, and kept clean picked, her father ventured home, having that to trust to. After being at home a week or two, the bed daily examined as usual, one day, in lifting the boards, the bed bounced to the top, the box being full of water; in her life she was never so struck, and had near dropt down, it being at that time their only refuge; her father, with great composure, said to his wife and her, he saw they must tempt providence no longer, and that it was now fit and necessary for him to go off, and leave them; in which he was confirmed, by the carrier telling for news he had brought from Edinburgh, that the day before, Mr Baillie of Jerviswoode had his life taken from him at the cross, and that every body was sorry, though they durst not shew it; as all intercourse by letters was dangerous, it was the first notice they had of it; and the more shocking, that it was not expected. They immediately set about preparing for my grandfather's going away. My mother workt night and day in making some alterations in his clothes for disguise; they were then obliged to trust John Allan, their grieve, who fainted away when he was told his master was in the house, and that he was to set out with him on horseback before day, and pretend to the rest of the servants that he had orders to sell some horses at Morpeth fair. Accordingly, my grandfather getting out at a window to the stables, they set out in the dark. Though with good reason, it was a sorrowful parting; yet after he was fairly gone they rejoiced, and thought themselves happy that he was in a way of being safe, though they were deprived of him, and little knew what was to be either his fate or their own.

"My grandfather, whose thoughts were much employed, and went on as his horse carried him, without thinking of his way, found himself at Tweedside, out of his road, and at a place not fordable, and no servant. After pausing, and stopping a good while, he found means to get over, and get into the road on t'other side, where, after some time, he met his servant, who shewed inexpressible joy at meeting him, and told him, as he rid first, he thought he was always following him, till upon a great noise of the galloping of horses, he lookt about and mist him; this was a party sent to his house to take him up, where they searched very narrowly,