of either the justification of moral regret, or the apology of necessity.

The following instance of hospitality and integrity, sufficiently interesting in itself, is rendered doubly so, as having happened to an ancestor of Rob Roy.

in

It has been related on good authority that this chieftain of the Macgregors resided on his lands at Glenorchy, in the early part of the seventeenth century, about which period one of his sons had gone, the shooting season, with a party of young associates to the moors, in the braes of that district. In the course of their sporting, they met with a young gentleman of the name of Lamont, from Cowal; who, attended by a servant, was proceeding to Fort William. They all went to the only inn that was in the place, and took refreshment together, in the course of which some trifling dispute took place between Macgregor and Lamont. Dirks were drawn; and before their friends could interfere, Macgregor fell mortally wounded. In the confusion the young Lamont escaped; and though pursued, yet, under cover of the night, found safety to the house of the elder Macgregor, which happened to be the first habitation that met his eye at the break of day. The chieftain was then up, and standing at his gate. Save my life," exclaimed the fugitive, "for men are in pursuit of me to take it away." "Whoever you are,' replied Macgregor, "here you are safe." Lamont was scarcely introduced to the family within doors, when his pursuers came up and inquired if a stranger

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had entered. "He has," said Macgregor, "and what is your business with him?” "In a scuffle," replied they, "he has killed your son; deliver him up that we may avenge the dead!"

On this information, Macgregor's lady and his two daughters filled the house with their cries and lamentations. "Be quiet," said the chief, though his own eyes manifested his extreme sorrow, " and let no man presume to touch the youth, for he has Macgregor's word and honour for his safety; and as God lives, he shall be secure and safe whilst he remains in my house!" Then treating the unhappy youth with the utmost kindness and hospitality, Macgregor carried him under his own personal protection to Inverary, accompanied by twelve men armed; having landed him in safety on the other side of Lochfine, he took him by the hand and parted with this address: " Lamont, now you are safe-no longer can I nor will I protect you-keep out of the way of my clan! May God forgive and bless !"

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The proscription of the clan of the noble-minded Macgregor, in 1633, took place soon after this, when the whole was dispersed and forced to fly; but whilst we regret that destruction so indiscriminate should have fallen on a tribe, perhaps not much worse than their neighbours, it is pleasing to record, that the chief himself found a shelter and a refuge in the house of the very Lamont to whom he had behaved with such integrity. At that period and long after, Lamont was noted for his urbanity, and the deep contrition which he felt for the unfortunate event of his youth; but he, by every act of kindness to his

venerable guest, and to some branches of his family, paid a tribute to that providence which had thus put it into his power to repay the family of his generous benefactor, in some measure, for the injury he had inflicted. *

A conjecture exists that a great part of the "Antiquary" is founded on facts. How far this may be the case, we confess ourselves unable to determine. The original of the Antiquary himself, is reported to have been a minister in the neighbourhood of Arbroath. A young gentleman who was intimate with his niece, the 'Mary M'Intyre' of the novel, showed a sermon in manuscript of the gentleman, some years ago, and mentioned his name which has been forgotten. The coast of the part of Scotland resembles that very nearly, which is described as being the neighbourhood of Fairport,-is much indented with caves, and equally dangerous in the event of high tides, for such as (like Sir Arthur Wardour and his daughter) attempt to pass along the shores. The fraud of Dousterswivel is said to have been a real occurrence in the case of some silver mines attempted to be set on foot near Innerleithen by the Earl of T- -. The next character stands better identified.

* This anecdote is related on the authority of a venerable clergyman, well acquainted with the private history of the Highland clans.

This gaberlunzie is supposed, by many persons who knew him, to have furnished the author of the Scottish national tales, with the idea of one of his happiest creatures. Edie Ochiltree *, is, indeed, a much more elevated and amiable person than the eccentric wanderer here produced as his counterpart ; but the latter (whom we cannot profess, however, to delineate at present with much nicety or distinctness) certainly possessed some of Edie's most remarkable and agreeable qualities, and, if not the sole original, at least probably suggested some of the most characteristic features of that very prepossessing and poetitical badgeman.

Andrew Gemmels was well known over all the border districts as a wandering beggar or Gaberlunzie, for the greater part of half a century. He had been a soldier in his youth; and his entertaining stories of his campaigns, and the adventures he had encountered in foreign countries, united with his shrewdness, drollery, and other agreeable qualities, rendered him a general favourite, and secured him a cordial welcome and free quarters at every shepherd's cot or farm-shading that lay in the range of his extensive wanderings. "Among his other places of resort in Teviotdale," says the authority whom we quote,

* Vide The Antiquary.

"Andrew regularly visited at my grandfather's. It was one of his Saturday night houses,' as he called them, where he always staid over the Sunday, and sometimes longer. He usually put up his horse on his arrival, without the formality of asking quarters and had a straw bed made up for him in the byre, claiming it rather as his acknowledged due and privilege, than as a boon of charity. He preferred sleeping in an out-house, and, if possible, in one where cattle or horses were kept. My grandfather who was an old fashioned farmer in a remote situation, was exceedingly fond of his company, and, though a very devout man and strict Cameronian, and occasionally somewhat scandalized at Andrew's rough and irreverend style of language, was nevertheless so much attracted by his conversation, that he seldom failed to spend the evenings of his sojourn in listening to his entertaining narrations and "auld warld stories" with the old shepherds, hinds, and children seated around them beside the blazing turf ingle in the "farmer's ha'." These conversations took sometimes a polemical turn, and in that case not unfrequently ended in a violent dispute; my ancestor's hot and impatient temper blazing forth in collision with the dry and sarcastic humour of his ragged guest. Andrew was never known to yield his point on these occasions; but he usually had the address, when matters grew too serious, to give the conversation a more pleasant turn, by some droll remark or unexpected stroke of humour, which convulsed the rustic group, and the graver good man himself, with unfailing and irresistible merriment.