gular and eccentric character. Among other oddities, I have heard it narrated, that he sadly puzzled old Pearson, the butler, by calling for a glass of Glenlivet; and fairly posed my father after dinner, by expressing a wish to be indulged with a bowl of toddy, a liquor, eo nomine at least, not familiar to any member of the establishment. Between our family and that of Balmalloch, little or no intercourse had been maintained, and that little had been confined to a formal notification of births, marriages, and deaths, perhaps occasionally garnished with a few of those cheap expressions of civility, which mean, and which are intended to mean, nothing. After reading this long preliminary statement, it will probably be seen, that the resolution of sending me to Glasgow, was the effect of a more recondite policy than might at first have been apparent. On my part, the business of preparation went merrily on. I was chiefly occupied in making arrangements for the comfortable provision, during my absence, of my horses and dogs. By my father, I was particularly enjoined to fail in no demonstration of respect and regard towards my uncle, and to have recourse, on all proper occasions, to his experience and advice. Many cautions, too, did I receive on the score of extravagance; and, ignorant as I then was, either of the value or necessity of money, I promised, without regret or scruple, that my expenses should be confined within the narrowest limits my father might impose. At length, all was finished; and duly furnished with letters to my uncle and Professor R, in whose family I was to become an inmate, I took a mournful and affectionate leave of my family; and, attended by a steady servant, stepped into the north mail, and on the third morning from my departure, found myself safely arrived at the place of my destination. CHAPTER V. I'll view the manners of the town, Comedy of Errors. "AND this," said I to myself, as I gazed from the window of my inn, on the crowd and bustle in the street below-" this is Glasgow !—this the chosen seat of Science and the Muses-this the academic quiet, in which the mind of youth is to be nursed in the calm abstractions of Philosophy!" There was, indeed, rather a ludicrous contrast between the ideas I had conjured up, and the scene before me; and I could scarcely regard it without smiling. In the centre of the street, waggons, loaded with merchandize of different sorts, passed without intermission; and on the trottoirs, two opposing torrents of passengers were pouring along with extreme rapidity, and with looks full of anxiety and business. Of these some would occasionally stop for a moment's conversation, on which a loud and vulgar laugh mingled anon with the prevailing dissonance, and added unnecessarily to the general cacophony. Their gait and gestures, too, were singularly awkward and ungainly, and differed not only in degree, but in character, from anything I had before seen. In the crowd before me, the actors seemed rigidly to adhere to the directions given by Plautus, for clearing a passage through a street encumbered by a population inconveniently dense. "Plenissume eos, qui adversum eunt, aspellito, Detrude, deturba in viam hæc hic disciplina pessima 'st. Currenti, properanti, haud quisquam dignum habet decedere. Ita tres simitu' res agendæ sunt, quando unam occeperis : Et currendum, et pugnandum, et jurgandum est in via.” Merc. Act I. s. 2. The scene, however, had at least the charm of novelty; and the spirit and animation which pervaded it, were sufficient to invest it with interest in my eyes. I had indulged some time in contemplation before my attention was recalled to the business of the day. My first step was to remove to the house of Professor R- ; and with this view I ordered the waiter to pro cure a hackney-coach. This, however, I discovered was a luxury of which Glasgow did not boast; and dispatching my servant with the porters and baggage, I resolved leisurely to explore my way on foot. Having received from my landlady, a person of very portly dimensions, all requisite information with regard to the geography of the University, I set forth on my walk. For the first time in my life did I now mingle in the tumult of a great city. It is true I had been in London; but I was then a child; and when pent up in a carriage, and whirled rapidly through the streets, I felt myself an isolated thing, and formed no unit in the busy crowd around me.. It was not, therefore, without some degree of mental excitement, that I now for the first time mingled in the throng, and threaded the devious mazes of the living labyrinth, in which I found myself involved. Every sense was alive to the demonstrations of industry and activity, which presented themselves on all sides; and the clink of hammers, and loud creaking of machinery, mixing with the busy hum of men, formed a strange amalgama |