get:

s too of a favourite marble. The demand quill, forms the charge. Bountry-guns

for bowls has occasioned, according to are formed of the alder tree, the soft finest the prevailing systems of mercantile pith being taken out, and are charged sierte economy, a corresponding increase in with wet paper ; and pipe-staples form

the manufacture. In my time there a very amusing play thing, by putting

were only two species, marble and stone two pins crosswise through a green kita bowls ; but now there are five or six pea, placing the pea at the upper end

different kinds, formed of stucco, clay, of the pipe-staple, and, holding it verfamis &c. which, though more of them cantically, blowing gently through it.

be got for a penny, yet I doubt much Making soap-bells with a tobacco-pipe, if they would stand the force of a and witnessing the fragile globe sail. breaker of former days.

ing in the air, is still a frequent and in Rowing girrs, (rolling hoops,) forms innocent amusement. alty

another healthy exercise to the boys of Flying dragons is a very common # Edinburgh. Hoops seem less in use thing in Edinburgh in harvest'; and hume now, however, than formerly; and í very beautiful objects these dragons

have observed that few are now deco- are, as they flutter in the air in an

rated (thanks to the police bill) with autumnal evening. To prevent misopter ginglers. The operation of guiding the apprehension, however, on the part of

path of a girr, which is done with a readers of romances, I beg to remark;

short stick, I should think an excellent that our Scottish dragons are perfectly ele preparation for those young gentlemen harmless animals, and have no connecwho

may afterwards be called, in the tion whatever with giants' castles, or. course of events, to drive their own maidens in jeopardy. They are genefour-in-hand, or display their ability rally guided by very young boys, with in more humbly guiding the equipage a chain no stronger than a piece of of another. Bummers, or a thin piece slight packing twine, and are found to of wood

swung round' by a small cord, be perfectly at the command of their I have not seen for many a day.

little masters. In short, a dragon in Ho, spy ! is chiefly a summer game. Scotland is what is called in England, Some of the party of boys conceal with no greater propriety, a kite ; and, themselves, and when in their hi. in both countries, I believe, they are ding-places call out these words to generally formed of the same material their companions; and the first who-paper. finds has next the pleasure of exerci- Pitch-and-Toss, is played with halfsing his ingenuity at concealment. pence or buttons. The parties stand at Hide and seek is, I believe, played a little distance, and pitch the halfmuch in the same manner, but the penny to a mark, or gog, and he who watchword of this last is hidee. The is nearest the mark, has the envied English and Scots used to be played privilege of tossing up for heads or by parties of boys, who, divided by a tails, and the first shot at the next trial fixed line, endeavoured to pull one of skill. Penny-stanes are played much another across this line, or to seize, in the same manner as the quoit or by bodily strength or nimbleness, á discus of the ancient Romans, to which wad (the coats or hats of the play- warlike people the idle tradesmen of ers) from the little heap deposited Edinburgh probably owe this favourite in the different territories at a conve- game. The duck is a small stone placed nient distance. The person pulled on a larger, and attempted to be hit off across, or seized in his attempt to rob by the players at the distance of a few the camp, was made a prisoner, and paces. conducted to the enemy's station, where If the reader be tired with these rebe remained under the denomination collections of former days, I can have of stinkard till relieved by one of the no objection, by concluding the chapcarne side, or by a general exchange of ter here, to give him a barley, (parprisoners.

ley ;) and if he feels he has enough of Pen-guns are made and fired at the th subject, he has nothing to but Season when the turnip first comes to shut the book, and (to use a very exmarket, which turnip, cut in thin pressive juvenile term,) spit and gi'o slices, and bored through with the owre.

rea

that

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2

CHAP. VIII.

Zickety, dickety, dock,
The mouse ran up the nock ;
The nock struck one,
Down the mouse ran ;

Zickety, dickety, dock. Hallowe'en, and HALLOWFAIR, successful adventurer is the person in Edinburgh, usher in nuts, ginger- who puts the pin between two leaves bread, and other articles for fuirings ; including a picture, which is the prize, and has been the appointed time, ever and the pin itself is the forfeit. A the since I remember, for all the boys to Birds in the Air, and a' the Days of the : possess themselves of shintys. The Week, are also common games, as well shinty, or hummy, is played by a set of as the Skipping-rope, and Honey-pots. boys in two divisions, who attempt, as The rhymes used by children to dethey best can, to drive with curved cide who is to begin a game, are much sticks, a ball, or what is more common, the same in the period to which my part of the vertebral bone of a sheep, recollection extends. The one at the in opposite directions. When the ob- head of this chapter is most frequentject driven along reaches the appoint- ly used for this purpose. To it may ed place in either termination, the cry be added the following ; and I would of hail! stops the play, till it is knock recommend the whole to the notice of ed off anew by the boy who was so for the antiquarian. tunate as to drive it past the gog.

Anery, twaery, tickery, seven, Playing at the ba' is also a favourite

Aliby, crackiby, ten or eleven; game with the boys of Edinburgh, and Pin-pan, muskidan, penny Herioters were at one time very Tweedlum, twodlum, twenty-one. celebrated. These balls were manufactured by the boys of George He- As I went up the Brandy hill riot's Hospital, and, from this circum- I met my father wi' gude will ; stance, got the name of Herioters. I He had jewels, he had rings, can youch to their being an excellent

He had mony braw things; article of the kind, and famous stotters.

He'd a cat and nine tails,

He'd a hammer wantin' nails; Golf is played also by young as well as

Up Jock, down Tam, old gentlemen ; and running the gaun- Blaw the bellows, auld man. trice, or gauntlet, is a punishment froquently inflicted on the least dexte- In another play, where all the littl® rous, as dumps are on the knuckles of actors are seated in a circle, the follow those who are unsuccessful at bowls. ing stanza is used as question and an

The games for girls are not so varied as those of the boys. Though Who goes round my house this night ? they may occasionally assist at those

None but bloody Tom; of the boys, yet it would be accounted Who stole all my chickens away ? unboyish, or effeminate, did the little

None but this poor one. men venture to take a part in the amusements more peculiarly appropri

Another game played by a numb ated to the girls. Of these, the chucks, of children with a hold of one anothe. played with a bowl and chucks,

a species ed in Scotland, is, Through the Needl

or tickle-tails, as it is technically cal of shell (Buccinum lapillus) found on

c'e. The immemorial rhyme for th the sea-shore ; and the Beds, where a pitcher is kicked into chalked divisions alluring exercise is this :of the pavement, the performer being Brother Jack, if ye were mine, on one leg, and hopping, are exclusive- I would give you claret wine; ly games for girls.

Claret wine's gude and finem “ Dab a prin in my lottery-book ;

Through the needle-e'e, boys ! dab ane dab twa, dub a' your prins Pirley Pease-weep is a game play awa," is putting a pin at random in by boys, and the name demonstra a school-book, between the leaves of that it is a native one; for it woi which little pictures are placed, The require a page of close writing to ma

swer:

a

it intelligible to an Englishman. The discretion, it may be thought, that following is the rhyme of this play,- sufficient space has already been al Scotsman, Scotsman, lo !

lotted to the amusements of periods Where shall this poor Scotsman go ?

long since and for ever past. Send him east, or send him west, Thus havel, Christopher Columbus, Send him to the craw's nest.

Esquire, shortly noticed the chief of The terms of hot and cold, used in the amusement of the children of

those games which were,

and still are, the game of Kittlie-cout; the couplet,

Edinburgh; and I seldom walk the Gie's a pin to stick in my thumb, streets, or pass the High School in the To carry my lady to London town;

intervals of the daily tasks, without and another couplet, addressed to the wishing, that it were decorous still to secreted personage at Hidee,

partake of amusements so healthy, and

so innocent. The billiard-table, dice, Keep in, keep in, wherever you be, cards, fives-court, and pugilism, are. The greedy gled's seeking ye ;

only improved modifications of the as they are often heard in the play- same games, transferred from the open grounds, must awaken the most plea- air to the tavern or enclosed court, sing recollections in the minds of those and the passions of the grown-up who have formerly enjoyed these pas- players excited by the stimulus of wine, times, or who still enjoy them by sub- or the still stronger one of stakes in stitution, in the persons of the little money. In place of the exercise being masters and misses, who are to take conducive to health, it is often only charge of the affairs of the world for the precursor to a dinner of repletion; the next generation. The following and the ingenuity exercised, during rhyme (for I am afraid grey-bearded the midnight hours, at cards, or the bachelors of the present day will not mad hazards of the dice, is often the think it contains much reason) is still prelude to permanent ruin. I do not in very common use,

envy the man who cannot take amuse

ment or exercise for health, or for Little wee laddie,

their own sakes; and I would rather Wha's your daddie?

that my stomach had lost all the taste I cam out o' a buskit lady. . A buskit lady's owre fine;

for healthy viands which hunger inI cam out o' a bottle o' wine.

duces, than that mymind should be the A bottle o' wine's owre dear;

slave of the most degrading passions I cam out o' a bottle o' beer. which can agitate the bosom of a hua A bottle of beer's owre thick ; man being. I cam out o' a guager's stick.

It would, perhaps, be in vain now A guager's stick's but and ben; to expect, that judges should leave I cam out o' a peacock hen.

the bench to hold the bannets beTo the favourite tune of Nancy

tween two pugilistic coinpetitors, Dawson several rhymes are sung in

though they may formerly have done concert, as

so in the High School Yard—that a

gambler at cards or dice should stop London bridge is broken down the ruin of his own or of another's We're a' maidens here but ane

fortune, by playing at nivy-nick-nack

or pitch and toss; that colonels and geThis is the way the ladies bake

nerals should amuse themselves at Ho, Here we go by gingo-ring, &c. spy! the wads, or join the jocund

bands at the English and Scots ;-mor But I must here stop; for in a work that lawyers and

attornies should unintended for the use of grown gentle- profitably exercise themselves at bowls men, and ladies arrived at the years of or the cleckenbrod: And it perhaps

a

May I venture to suggest to our erudite commentators, and those skilled in antiquarian lore, that it would be better, in place of amending poor Shakespeare, (whose wri. tings require no emendation,) to turn their talents for conjectural criticism and historical research to such subjects as I have now set forth. It would be curious to know, that many of our present youthful games were played by Mark Antony or Julius Cæsar ; that Homer or Virgil had dozed taps and piries ;--that Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret had played at tig ;-or that Sir William Wallace and Robert Bruce ever amused themselves, in fun, at the game of English and Scots.

would be equally vain to expect, that respectable merchant in Edinburgh, ladies should give up the luxurious have I been in partnership in a con waltz, and the beauty-killing attrac- cern of rabbits and dows; drowned tions of late hours, to dance in daya puppies and kittens with many a relight over the skipping-rope, or join verend divine; worried cats and rats the merry ring at Through the needle with many a first-rate tradesman ; and e'e,~A' the birds the uir,-or Tig bickered, as the scars on my forehead me if you can; but, as the differ- still testify, with many of the victors ence between these amusements is of the French at Waterloo. I have only in degree, I see no reason to de- lived to see not a few of my early comspair of inducing those, to whom inno- panions blotted from the list of ani. cence, and health, and happiness, are mated beings; and I cannot think of objects of interest, to return to the their fate without feeling that every pastimes of childhood, with the same chapter of my Voyages and Travels guileless hearts as when they entered here, draws me nearer to into their spirit in the morning of their days.

“ That undiscover'd country, from whose

bourne It may be considered puerile, child- No traveller returns.” ish, or even infantine, O reader ! if you will, to have said so much of games Amongst the vast number of those and times so long gone by; but I know who have successively appeared on the at least one judge who was famous at stage of life, how few are remembered making bumbee-binks ; several advo- beyond a few months or years ! and

! eates who were celebrated for catching even the very games which occupied minnows and banstickles; and not a

their earliest and happiest days are in few writers to the signet who were danger of being lost, from a change of dexterous at finding and herrying yelo manners, and the want of an low-yites and linties. With many a

chronicler."

“ honest

CHAPTER IX.

THE GRASSMARKET.

HERE's a sight, fy haste ye, mither,
Cows and stots, and a' thegither,
Stoitin ane against anither,

Tweedle-drone, drone-tweedle, 0;
Sic a sight was never seen, O!
Some are fat and some are lean, o !
Dirty some are, others clean, o !
Tweedle-drone, drone-tweedle, O!

The Grant Fencibles' March, with variations. The Grassmarket, on a Wednesday, posed for sale, my attention was for a is a busy scene. Being the market for moment arrested by the appearance of black-cattle and horses, a number of six very handsome bullocks. I liked droves are weekly assembled there for the physiognomy of the poor animals, sale. Though the amount of my agri- and could not help feeling some regret cultural knowledge might not qualify that the purpose for which they were me to undertake a farm, yet I have driven there was to put an end to their occasionally peeped into the publica- existence ; that they had been brought tions of our patriotic countryman Sir from luxuriating in sunny pastures John Sinclair, and flatter myself that and daisied fields, merely with the I am able at first sight to distinguish view of filling the maw of that most a bull from a cow, a horse from a mare, carnivorous and rapacious animal, and a wether from a ram. I can tell Man. My reverie was interrupted by a an egg, from a flour-dumpling; know slap on the shoulder from a man in a that calves are not fed on field-mice, great-coat, with boot-hose, and a whip that geese are not quadrupeds,-and in his hand. “ Weel, what think ye that butter and cheese are made, not of oʻthae stots?” said he;" there is nae small beer, but of milk. Sauntering better beasts in the market the day.” along one Wednesday morning, and They seem very handsome animals,” stopping at every parcel of cattle ex- said I. “ Ye may say that,” replied

a

my new friend; "they war fed in my house, or failing of that, to disposing ain yard at Wirlyknows, and de'il a of the animals, though at some loss, bit o' oilcake ever crossed their craigs: to my friend Deacon Sparerib, the only find them, man-tak haud o' butcher, I resolved to make the best them-dinna be feared.”

of my unfortunate situation, With that he half dragged me be- We were crossing the street to the tween two of the bullocks; and, not fatal house, squeezing through a crowd to shew my ignorance, I felt the flanks of farmers, graziers, butchers, dogs, of the aniinals, in the manner I saw and cattle-drivers, when the attention him, raised their tails, and patted their of my friend was arrested by the callnecks, as if I had been born a grazier ing of his name, in a loud voice, by a or a butcher. “What do ye think person at a little distance" Andrew! may be the weight o' thae now? gie a -Andrew Cloverfield !-Mr Cloverguess. ."-" I have no idea, indeed,” field, I say?-Deil's in the man, is he replied I. “Toots, awa wi' your af- deaf?"_" Wha's that crying on me? fectation, inan,-ye ken fu' weel, ye Stop a wee, Mr Harrigals, till we see," haena been sae lang a flesher without said he, and turned in the direckennan mair than ye wish to tell. But tion from whence the voice proceed, if they dinna stand out aught-and- ed. A young man, about my own forty stane, ye’s get them for naething. size, was bustling through the crowd, I'm sure ye'll no grudge saxteen punds dressed in a short white jacket, booted the piece for them-ye canna in your and spurred. “O, it's

you ! Preserve conscience ca' that dear."-" I really us a'-how like you are to your brither! do not know their value correctly, I've been looking for you twa hours they may be worth that money, for in the market the day, as I had halfaught I know."--"Worth the money! promised to your father to put a gude Deacon Mitchell took twal siclike for article in your hands. Herd Sandy's 58. mair a-head; but no to stand gib- awa' wi' the beasts to your park, and bling gabbling, they're your's at that now we'll a' gang in, and we'll hae price, and we'll say nae mair about it.” our breakfast thegither.”—“ That's

But really, sir, I know nothing about no my brither, Mr Cloverfield ; you the matter, and” “Say nae mair must be mista'en; and if ye hae seli'd about it, Mr Harrigals --it's a done the beasts, there's nae mair about it; bargain,” said he, taking me by the but mysiller's as gude as anither's, aná hand; “I ken your father fu' weel, there's as gude fish in the sea as ever and he'll no be sorry ye've coft the cam out o't.”- “ For God's sake, sir, beasts thrae me. If ye dinna double stop a moment,” said I; “ the baryour money on them, I'll eat them a' gain's yours, if you will take it. This mysell. We'll just stap into this house honest gentleman has been under some here, and tak half a mutchkin on the sad mistake, which he would not albargain, and ye can gie me your order low me to clear up-do but take the on Sir William for the siller.-San, animals at your own price."-"What!" dy, drive these beasts to Mr Harri- said young Harrigals, “ has this chield gals' parks at the Grange Toll, and been imposing upon you by calling then gang to Mrs Twopenny's and get himself me? Grip him, Andrew your breakfast, and see the powney get he maun be a swindler--and I'll ca' á feed, for I'll leave the market at twal. for the police.”—“ Wha may ye be ? Come awa, Mr Harrigals, and we'll tell honestly this moment,” said Closettle the business,” said he, taking verfield, seizing me by the neck; “ if me by the coat.

ye offer to cheat me, by a' that's good Remonstrance was of no avail— I'll gie you a sarkfu' o' sair banes, I could not get in a single word. A even in the open market. He may have feeling of the ridicule I should incur accomplices--there may be mair than among my friends in the town-coun- ane o' them.” cil, and the figure I should make at It was in vain for me to tell him home as the proprietor of twelve fat that he had forced the cattle on me, stots, kept me for the moment in a or to attempt to explain that I had kind of stupor, and I followed, or ra- only meant to satisfy my curiosity, by ther was dragged along by my con- unwittingly looking at his bullocks. ductor, who was expatiating on the “ Tak him into the house, till we see bargain he bad sold me, Trusting to wha he is that has ta’en up our name, be able to explain matters when in the said Harrigals ;“ if he has forged our

a