can feel

and finally entered Edinburgh. The story gives an interesting account of the Old Town as it appeared in those stirring and memorable times. Persons who know Scott's "romantic town" how picturesque it must then have been. The place there chiefly illustrated is Holyrood, to some of the more modern portions of which the story agreeably introduces us. The most distinguished scene was the "long room" or gallery of the palace, now shown to visitors, that we may fancy reanimated by a state ball, described in the novel, attended by most of the brilliant ladies and gentlemen who had then joined their fortunes with the Stuart cause, and memorable to Captain Waverley as the occasion of his quite romantic presentation to the young and fascinating Prince Charles Edward. The apartment is about 150 feet long and 27 feet wide. The height is considerable. There is a rather simple wainscoting of pine, painted to imitate oak; and there is also a carved cornice. The chimney-pieces, two in number, are edged with marble. Windows on one side open upon the front court; and at the end, upon the Queen's Park, a large extent of grassy ground containing Arthur's seat, almost mountainous in its elevation. The walls are lined with portraits of the Scottish Kings, some of whom lived centuries before painting was known in the country. Over two thousand years of royalty are portrayed in this upholsterer's gallery of art. Yet the room is noble.

The story is further connected with the battle of Prestonpans (fought Sept. 21st, 1745), and with a skirmish at Clifton. The former field is about ten miles from Edinburgh on the sea-coast; considerable of it may be seen from the railway. The latter field is also near the railway, four miles south of Penrith, or twenty-two miles south of Carlisle. There are many other places in Scotland and England mentioned in this novel, chiefly incidentally, but which can hardly be described connectedly without narration of too much of the plot, with which, indeed, they are not intimately associated.

A return of Captain Waverley to the Highlands in altered times, leads our attention to a secret cave or hiding-place used by an unfortunate gentleman, prominent in the story, who had been "out" in the "affair." The cave is designed from one in a glen really thus occupied near a residence described on page 142, - Craighall, near Blairgowrie. This retreat, like most of the places mentioned in "Waverley," is very suggestive of the vicissitudes of the unhappy

rebellion. It is in a wild ravine,- one of those peculiarities of Scottish scenery,—presenting high cliffs, forests, shrubbery, and dashing water picturesquely combined, and forming a pleasant place for a visit during a bright summer's day, but not a comfortable refuge during a prolonged period.

From this hiding-place, the action of the story leads attention more closely to Tully-Veolan, and finally to Carlisle, the scene of its latter development, in sad and tragic interest, that may be recalled with peculiar intensity by those who walk upon the battlemented walls of the ancient castle there.

And thus the closing of "Waverley" brings our thoughts to the city from which excursions described in the next three chapters are to be made; in which, also, are some notices of the place itself. Carlisle Castle, the scene chiefly associated with this story, though much changed, and of small strategic importance as a military post, is yet maintained and garrisoned. It is a large, irregular, sombre, reddish-brown stone structure, predominating over the city and country. It has two court-yards, entered through gloomy arched ways in heavy towers. There is a rather wide town and rural view from the walls. Nearly all parts of the castle itself show age. Founded upon a rock, enduringly, its red stone walls have grown dark, almost black, from action of time and storm and smoke, and their once smoothly cut surfaces are now worn and scaled. The great square Keep, the portcullis, and the long cannon, curiously combine the old and the new in war. Red-coated sentries or mustered companies present or recall military realities, — and of sad sort to readers of this story, who remember the end of "the Pretender's "great attempt, when the Georgean government here partly closed it, and, with it, the lives of many brave men engaged in it. The scene in "Waverley" that was here was of this sort, and illustrates a passing away of ancient manners and institutions and classes in Scotland, as distinct as was the revolution about half a century later of a similar passing away in France. "There is," said Scott in 1814, “no European nation which within the course of half a century or little more, has undergone so complete a change as this kingdom of Scotland. The effects of the insurrection of 1745; the destruction of the patriarchal power of the Highland chiefs; the abolition of the heritable jurisdiction of the Lowland nobility and barons; the total eradication of the Jacobite party, which, averse to intermingle with the English, or adopt their cus

toms, long continued to pride themselves upon maintaining ancient Scottish manners and customs, commenced this innovation. The gradual influx of wealth and extension of commerce have since united to render the present people of Scotland a class of beings as different from their grandfathers as the existing English are from those of Queen Elizabeth's time."

Thus, at Carlisle, among closing scenes of the rebellion of 1745, and of this story illustrating it with graphic, with unrivalled, distinctness and interest, we may appropriately think of both Scottish and English life before it and during its changes, and lay aside "Waverley," while, also from Carlisle, we make an excursion not long - to localities associated with a sort of corresponding tale, "Redgauntlet," showing the "Pretender," grown old and far less attractive, making, in 1770, his final attempt to gain the throne of his ancestors, - indeed a contrast to his great and brilliant adventure twenty-five years before. And after notice of this corresponding tale, we may, again from Carlisle, visit the scenery of "Guy Mannering," the second of the " Waverley Novels.”

XIX.

"REDGAUNTLET."

Nineteenth Novel of the Series; Time of Action, 1770; Published June, 1824; Author's Age, 53.

THIS

HIS composition, the pendent to "Waverley," as shown at the end of the last chapter, is far less historical, and generally less interesting and important, than its companion; yet, as Mr. Lockhart thought, had "Waverley" not been known, this would have been deemed a masterpiece. And, he added, "it contains perhaps more of the author's personal experiences than any other of the series, or even than all the rest put together." It was written during about the last year of Scott's unbroken pecuniary prosperity; a year that, his biographer states, "mirabile dictu!

produced but one novel;" for this was of the period when his literary achievements were almost fabulous in exuberance and richness. He had then gained the height of his remarkable position and success, a position one of the most brilliant then held by any living person.

"Redgauntlet" is often rather sad in tone; yet it is by no means unattractive. A sketch of its long and rather complicated story may be omitted here, and simply mention of its chief localities may be given. Redgauntlet Castle, the chiefest, is said to be designed from Hoddam Castle, Dumfriesshire, situated in Annandale, a few miles south-west of Ecclefechan station on the Caledonian Railway, - a station twenty miles from Carlisle. It was built in the fifteenth century, by Lord Herries, whose family name is so prominent in the novel as to have caused Scott to have used it, at first, for the title. The castle, remarkable for strength, and for the fine views it commands, is a turreted and pinnacled structure, in Scottish baronial style, “maintained in as comely a state as any edifice of its class" in the kingdom. Grose gives two views of it. The name of the parish in which it stands - Cummertrees - suggests

the name of a person rendered rather conspicuous by the story, the Laird of Summertrees, a Papist conspirator with Redgauntlet in the last Jacobite attempt at insurrection. This worthy's appearance to readers suggests one of his adventures in "45," and an excursion from that pretty, quiet, little Scottish watering-place, Moffat, to which the traveller should go when exploring scenes associated with "Old Mortality" (chapter xxii). The Laird had been "out" rebelliously, had been arrested by the established authorities, and was being conducted under guard to Carlisle, and to what was disagreeably likely, to his execution. The party was traversing a public road, where, about five miles north of Moffat, it extends along an elevation that overlooks a curious, deep valley, called the Marquis of Annandale's Beefstand. The Laird, who had been watching opportunity for escape, ingeniously made available the capabilities of this eligible place. It received its name, said the Laird, "because the Annandale loons used to put their stolen cattle in there." "It looks (he described) as if four hills were laying their heads together, to shut out daylight from the dark, hollow space between them. A d-d, deep, black, blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is, and goes straight down from the road-side, as perpendicular as it can do, to be a heathery brae. At the bottom, there is a small bit of a brook, that you would think could hardly find its way out from the hills that are so closely jammed around it." The Laird, in a manner actually accomplished there by a gentleman in his situation, slipped from his guard, rolled to the foot of the precipitous slope, "like a barrel down Chalmers's Close in Auld Reekie," fled across the moors, and escaped.

A great deal of the action of this novel-peculiarly Scott's West-Border story-occurred on the Scottish and English shores of Solway Frith. This wide, shallow, and almost unique estuary is well worth a visit for its unusual character, and the land and water views it commands. At low water it presents a vast extent of sands, fordable in many places, and allows travellers a sort of Israelitish passage from one kingdom to the other: but the passage, although curious, is not thoroughly safe; for when the rapid tide rises, it may too overwhelmingly show the style of Pharaoh's discomfiture. At high tide it appears a great sea bay. A prominent place in the novel is "Fairladies," said to be designed from Drumburgh Castle, erected by the Dacres about three hundred years ago from materials of an older castle, and now, or lately,