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they called venison; but I had nearly lost a couple of teeth in the attempt, the vile animal being as tough as a dead donkey, though they said it was a wild roe (I wish Richard Roe was choked with him) which our host shot with his rifle a few days before. Then the lady of the house proposed ale to me with some cheese! and there was no other wine but vulgar blackstrap and Madeira, with a solitary bottle of bad claret, out of compliment to me. Indeed no claret but Lafitte is worth a man's drinking.

After dinner the barbarians drank toasts! whilst some of the young folks went into an adjacent room and danced reels, like mad people. I proposed a round at Faro, or even at Quinze, for I am awake; but the cautious Scotchman would not touch a card. One fellow sung a song in Gaelic, which was as odious as incomprehensible to me; and they forced me to continue hard drinking until midnight. The next day they brought an amazing turn-out of broiled fish and honey, and marmalade and eggs, with tea and coffee, for breakfast ; but the vulgarity of the scene, the rude health of the ladies, and the more rustic unpolished appetites of the men, quite sickened me. Some of the party swallowed bumpers of the liquid fire after breakfast. I took one cup of tea with some brandy in it, and eat about a quarter of an inch of their dry toast, which smelt of turf smoke.

I endeavoured to ascend some rugged mountains after breakfast, in order to shoot grouse; but my staylace gave way, my morocco boots burst, and my dowlas trowsers got wet through. I returned faint and almost breathless, when my overkind indelicate host had the impudence to propose a glass of this essence of smoke as a restorative, and to put me into petticoats until my trowsers were dried, holding out to me a vile worsted, tartan, scrubbed kilt of his grandfather's, which he told me, by way of a recommendation, had been in four battles. On the third day we risked our lives in a crazy rickety boat, and were half drowned in attempting to see Iona and Staffa-two trumpery islands; the one

a ci-devant royal burial-ground, the other not worth observation. A pretty notion to bring a man to see ruins and tombs as if one could not get agreeable ruins enough in London. Who would go to see tombs who could find any livelier amusement in the world?

The bread fell short one day, and my horses and myself were both fed on oats. Moreover, I have had a fall in one of their villanous roads, and have torn my tunic, so that I should be obliged to wear an evening frock, could I go out, which would be like a cit or a tradesman. The beast of a washerwoman, too, has spoiled half a dozen of my cravats. She does not know how to starch them, and has torn off the strings destined to be tied behind. The moment that the weather clears up, I shall quit this prison, where I am the laughing-stock of the profanum vulgus; and I heartily regret ever having left Bond-street, or having turned my face towards the Highlands, and particularly her savage isles, where I have not seen a tree in a week.

P.S.-Might I trouble you to tell my man to get me a new Cumberland corset? I am as lean as my greyhound. None of my clothes will fit me; and had I not lived upon moor-fowl, Madeira, and biscuit, I should have been famished.

Thus ended my Exquisite's epistle. I doubt not but that he was the laughing-stock of the island, as he must have exhibited a striking contrast to the robust inhabitants. However, when I visited these parts, I came away lustier than I went; and had only to complain of too much hospitality shown to

Literary Gazette.

A GHOST STORY.

(FROM WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY.)

THE following Ghost Story must be known in some shape or another to the most of our readers; but not many, perhaps, are aware how long it has been upon

record. The following are the words, a little abridged, of William of Malmesbury, written in the 12th century, in the reign of William the Conqueror.

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"There were in that city (Nantes) two ecclesiastics ordained, ere their years allowed, to be priests, the bishop yielding the same rather to favour than to desert of a fair life; at last, the woeful ending of the one instructed the survivor how their road went sheer to hell. But so far as the science of letters they were excellently taught, and from very tender infancy so joined in pleasant friendship, that they would have adventured peril of life for one another. Wherefore one day, in more than wonted overflowing of mind, they thus secretly spake That for many years they, now in study of letters, now in worldly cares, had exercised their minds, and had found no satisfaction, intent rather amiss than aright. Meanwhile the day draweth on which shall sever their loves; wherefore they should prevent this, and provide that the same faith which had joined them living go with the first dying unto the kingdom of the dead. They compact, therefore, that whichsoever shall first depart shall certainly, within thirty days, appear to the survivor, waking or sleeping, and declare to him if it be as the Platonists hold, that death extinguisheth not the mind, but restores it as released out of prison unto its origin, God; if not, then must faith be given to the sect of the Epicureans, who believe that the soul, loosed from the body, vanisheth into air. To this was their faith plighted, and in their daily discourses the same oath oftentimes renewed; nor was it long before death suddenly taketh one of them away. The other remained, and thought with much seriousness of the promise, expecting momently that his friend shall come during the thirty days; which being spent, giving up his hope, he turneth himself to other business, when suddenly the other stood beside him, being awake, and going about some work, pale, and with a countenance such as is of the dying while the spirit passeth away. Then the dead first accosts the living, who spake not"Knowest thou me?' he said. 'I know thee,' he made

VOL. II.

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answer; and I am not troubled at thy unwonted presence so much as I am in wonder of thy long absence.' But he having excused his delay-' At last,' said he, ‘I come; and my coming, if thou wilt, dear friend, shall be profitable to thee; but to me utterly fruitless, whose sentence is pronounced into eternal punishment.' And when the living man, for redemption of the dead, would promise to bestow all his substance on monasteries, and on the poor, and himself to spend nights and days in fastings and prayers, It is fixed,' quoth he, that I have said; for the judgments of God are without repenting, by which I am plunged into the sulphureous gulf of hell. My doom is everlasting-my pains eternal and innumerable, though all the whole world should seek remedy. And that thou mayest understand something of my infinite sufferings,' stretching out his hand, distilling with an ulcerous sore; 'lo!' he said, one of the least: doth it seem to thee light?' And the other replying that it seemed to him light, he, bending his fingers, cast three drops upon him of that trickling gore; whereof two touching the temples, and one the forehead, entered skin and flesh as with fiery cautery, making wounds that might hold a nut. He by a cry testifying the greatness of the anguish-This,' said the dead, shall be to thee, as long as thou shalt live, an admonishment of my great punishment; and, if thou slight it not, of thy own deliverance.' He then enjoined him (as the historian goes on to relate) to proceed forthwith to Rennes, and there to take the habit of a monk under the holy Melanius. And the other appearing still to hesitate, the dead, cum oculi vigore perstringens, bade him, if he doubted, 'to read these letters; and opening his hand, showed him written on it thanks, addressed by Satan and his whole crew, to every ecclesiastical society; because they neglected no thing of their own pleasures, and suffered such numbers of souls to go down to hell, through the decay of preaching, as former ages had never beheld. The sinner was overcome- -distributed all his property to churches and the poor-took the habit under St. Melanius-and became

an eminent example to all, not only of a wonderful conversion, but of a holy conversation to the end of life." Blackwood's Magazine.

THE SPECTRE BRIDE.

THE castle of Hernswolf, at the close of the year 1665, was the resort of fashion and gaiety. The baron of that name was the most powerful nobleman in Germany, and equally celebrated for the patriotic achievements of his sons, and the beauty of his only daughter. The estate of Hernswolf, which was situated in the centre of the Black Forest, had been given to one of his ancestors by the gratitude of the nation, and descended with other hereditary possessions to the family of the present owner. It was a castellated, Gothic mansion, built according to the fashion of the times, in the grandest style of architecture, and consisted principally of dark winding corridors, and vaulted tapestry rooms, magnificent indeed in their size, but ill-suited to private comfort, from the very circumstance of their dreary magnitude. A dark grove of pine and mountainash encompassed the castle on every side, and threw an aspect of gloom around the scene, which was seldom enlivened by the cheering sunshine of heaven.

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The castle bells rung out a merry peal at the approach of a winter twilight, and the warder was stationed with his retinue on the battlements, to announce the arrival of the company who were invited to share the amusements that reigned within the walls. The Lady Clotilda, the baron's only daughter, had but just attained her seventeenth year, and a brilliant assembly was invited to celebrate the birth-day. The large vaulted apartments were thrown open for the reception of the numerous guests, and the gaieties of the evening had scarcely commenced, when the clock from the dun

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