established reputation, deeply hidden in the impervious and the impenetrable wynds of the old town, and only known and frequented by such of those veteran, trueblue, last century characters, which still survive, unburied, in this degenerated capital, to dignify its streets with the ivory headed cane, the buckled 'breeks,' and the stately strut of A. D. 1780.

To some of our readers, it may still be palatable to learn that genuine tippenny,' the liquor on which our simple ancestors used to fuddle for a groat, is still secretly sold to a few choice veteran spirits of the above cut, who hold their nocturnal orgies in the back slums of Halkerston's wynd. But alas! how perishable are all human institutions! these antiquated temples of fun and frolic that have so long eluded the devastating scythe of time, like ruins in the desert, to tell the tale of ages long gone by, are fast dying out; or what is nearly the same, assuming new forms, in compliance with modern innovation. What inhabitant of 'auld Reckee' has not heard of the venerable house in Libberton's wynd so long kept by that kindliest of Landlords, good old Jonnie Dowie; where Fergusson, H******, Crosbie, Burns and Lord Gardenstone, spent so many nights of social delight. O tempora! its present and anti-gothic possessors have lighted it with gas and gilt its signboard! The room termed the coffin, in which Burns wrote 'Willie brewed a peck o'maut,' and scribbled verses on the walls, they have covered over with green cloth and given it a new table!'

DOMINIE SAMPSON.*

There are few of our originals, in whom preciser points of coincident resemblance can be exhibited be

* Vide Guy Mannering.

*

tween the real and fictitious character, than in him who is here assigned as the prototype of Dominie Sampson. The person of real existence, also, possesses the singular recommendation of presenting more dignified and admirable characteristics, in their plain unwarranted detail, than the ridiculous caricature produced in Guy Mannering; though it be drawn by an author whose elegant imaginations have here exalted, but never debased the materials to which he has condescended to be indebted.

Mr. James Sanson was the son of James Sanson, tacksman of Birkhillside mill, situated in the parish of Legerwood, in Berwickshire. After getting the ru diments, and his education at a country school, he went to the university of Edinburgh, and at a subsequent period, completed his probationary studies at that of Glasgow. At these colleges he made great proficiency in the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, and became deeply immersed in the depths of philosophy and theology, of which, as with Dominie Sampson, the more abstruse and neglected branches were his favorite subjects of application. He was a close, incessant student; and in the families where he afterwards resided as tutor, all his leisure moments were devoted to the pursuits of literature. Even his hours of relaxation and walking were not exempted, in the exceeding earnestness of his solicitude; then he was seldom seen without a book, upon which he would be so intent, that a friend might have passed and even spoken to him, without Sanson's being conscious of the circum

After going through his probationary trials before the presbytery, he became an acceptable and even ad

seen.

*Another prototype of this distinguished character will be We leave it to those who may be better able to judge, to say which of the two stands most closely identified with the picture drawn by the author.

mired preacher; being frequently employed in assisting the clergyman of the neighborhood.

From the narrow circumstances of his father, he was obliged early in life to become a tutor. Into whose family he first entered, is unknown. However, in this humble situation, owing probably to the parsimonious economy to which he had been accustomed from his infancy in his father's house, he, in a short time, saved the sum of twenty-five pounds a little fortune in those days to a youth of Mr. Sanson's habits.

With this money he determined upon a pedestrian excursion into England, for which he was excellently qualified, from his uncommon strength and undaunted resolution. After journeying over a great part of the sister kingdom, he came to Harwich, where a sight of the passage-boats to Holland, and the cheapness of the fare, induced him to take a trip to the continent. How he was supported during his peregrinations, was never certainly discovered; but he actually travelled over the greatest part of the Netherlands, besides a considerable portion of Germany, and spent only about the third part of his twenty-five pounds. He always kept a profound silence upon the subject himself; but it is conjectured with great probability, that in the Low Countries he had recourse to convents, where the monks were ever ready to do acts of kindness to men of such learning as Sanson would appear to them to be.

Perhaps he procured the means of subsistence by the expedients which the celebrated Goldsmith is said to have practised in his continental wanderings; and made the disputation of the morning supply the dinner of the day.

After his return from the continent, about 1784, he entered the family of the Rev. Lawrence Johnston of Earlstone; where he continued some time, partly employed in the education of his children, and giving occasional assistance in his public ministerial duty. From

this situation he removed to the house of Mr. Thomas Scott, uncle to the celebrated Sir Walter, whose family then resided at Ellieston in the county of Roxburgh. While superintending this gentleman's children, he was appointed to a higher duty, the charge of Carlenridge chapel in the parish of Hawick; which he performed regularly every Sunday, at the same time that he attended the education of the family through the week.

We may safely conjecture that it was at this particular period of his life he first was honored with the title of Dominie Sanson.

He was next employed by the Earl of Hopetoun, as chaplain to that nobleman's tenants at Leadhills; where, with an admirable, but unfortunate, tenaciousness of duty, he patiently continued to exercise his honorable calling, to the irreparable destruction of his own health. The atmosphere being tainted with the natural effluvia of the noxious mineral which was the staple production of the place, though incapable of influencing the health of those who had been accustomed to it from their infancy, had soon a fatal effect on the life of poor Sanson. The first calamitous consequence that befell him, was the loss of his teeth; next he became totally blind; and last of all, to complete the sacrifice, the insalubrious air extinguished the vital principle.

Thus did this worthy man, though conscious of the fate that awaited him, choose rather to encounter the last enemy of our nature, than relinquish what he considered a sacred duty; strange that one whose conduct in life was every way so worthy of the esteem and gratitude of mankind-whose death would not have disgraced the devotion of a primitive martyr-should, by means of a few less dignified peculiarities, have eventually conferred the character of perfection on a work of humor, and in a caricatured exhibition, supplied attractions nearly unparalleled to a thousand THEATRES. Mr. James Sanson was of the greatest stature, above

six feet high, and otherwise proportionably enormous. His person was coarse, his limbs large, and his manners awkward; so that while people admired the simplicity and innocence of his character, they could not help smiling at the clumsiness of his motions and the rudeness of his address. His soul was pure and untainted-the seat of many manly and amiable virtues. He was ever faithful in his duty, both as a preacher and as a tutor; warmly attached to the interests of the family where he resided; and gentle in the instruction of his pupils. As a preacher, though his manners in his public exhibitions, no less than in private society, were not in his favor, he was well received by every class of hearers. His discourses were the well-digested productions of a laborious and thoughtful mind, and his sentiments seldom failed to be expressed with the utmost beauty and elegance of diction.

DANDIE DINMONT.*

It has been remarked in the Quarterly Review that there is scarcely a dale in the pastoral districts of the south of Scotland, but arrogates to itself the possession of the original of Dandie Dinmont. Many farmers have been selected as having the strongest resemblance to this humorous and eccentric personage; and even a community of traits and peculiarities have been attempted to be set up in favor of respective identity; but all we can presume from this is, that no single prototype was ever contemplated by the author; and that honest Dandie is merely the general representative of his species, the lads of Liddesdale.'

The gentleman, however, to whom this high honor has been assigned with the greatest probability of justice, was, unfortunately, one who viewed a place in the

* Vide Guy Mannering.