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perfect and polished form . We mean the song ( p . 10 ) which was improved into the pretty ditty of County Guy in Quentin Durward , and the ballad of " Bonny Dundee , " which appeared in one of the Juvenile Annuals . Plot , character , and dialogue , all are only not common-place when they are worse than
common-place . We write this fact regretfully ; feeling how many hours of enjoyment we are indebted to the author for , and hoping that we shall yet have to thank him for many more . But it behoves the public to give him aud his bookseller a lesson on the occasion ; they have amply deserved it ; an $ may it be of service to them , and teach them
not again to trifle with people s expectations and purses . A good motive will not ensure a good book ; nor ought the public to be taxed ( for Sir Walter Scott ' s name in a title-page does infallibly levy a tax upon the community ) merely on account of the author ' s kind-heartedness
towards an individual ; for certainly the only merit we can discover in these dramas is , that they ' * were written for the purpose of obliging the late Mr . Terry . "
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Art . VIII . —Memoirs of a Gentletvoman of the Old School . In 2 Vols . The authoress of these Memoirs , beingf , as she informs us , in her 77 th year , should belong to the old school herself ,
but of this we can find no signs in her book ; it is written in the poco cur ante style , with the passer le temps intentiou of any other new work of the kind , with precisely that mixture of truth and falsehood , real aud invented names aud positions , which may be considered as
" an art unknown to the ancients . We have only % o conclude that experience teaches other things besides wisdom , and that a lady of tact will always keep pace with the fashion . The first thing to be learnt from the Old Lady ' s Memoirs , is a novel and speedy mode of keeping a husbaud at home ( write it down , lesson
the first , in a young lady ' s album ) . " One of my father ' s sisters was ^ happily married , and mother to three children , when the Pretender arrived in Scotland ; my aunt ' s husband prepared to join him , regardless of his wife ' s entreaties to remain at home ; his horses were at the door , he was eating his breakfast , when , an if by accident , she threw down the kettle of boiling water , and so scalded him , that he was obliged , at that moment , to relitiguish his purpose : " ne-
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vertheless fata viam inveuient , and the poor man was killed at the battle of Culloden . The sequel of the story is too remarkable to be omitted ; news being received of the event , his wife , " with a small cart and two servants , went in search of her husband ' s bodyfound , took it home , and , by this means , preserved his property to the children . " " I relate this anecdote , " says the supposed auto-biographical lady , < c being somewhat vain of my aunt Isabella ' s courage aud presence of mind . " Lesson the second ; on the mutability of human affections . " My father was the eldest son of my grandfather ' s second wife ; she presented him with four mora sons , who , as has been related to me , kicked and cuffed each other in the nursery , yet were the best of friends Tvheo arrived at man ' s estate . I tell this to
console those parents who witness nursery squabbles with regret and apprehension . Their mother had a distant relation for whom she had a great regard ; so had not her husband . He used to say , " I am willing , my dear , you should see your cousin , but pray invite her when I am from home . " This cousin he afterwards took for his third wife !—Vol . I . p . 3 . Item the third , ** ( As Dr . Johnson says , ) * We may praise ourselves if we deserve
praise . "' Item the fourth , " I , lady-like , flattered myself , which I hope is not so criminal as flattering others . " Lesson the fifth , " It is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood , but truth is not always to be spoken , though it is said in the Scripture , * Speak the truth alway . '" The story annexed is captious and foolish ( see Vol . I . p . 55 ) . Item the sixth , " Lord S . had a chaplain who went through prayers in seventeen minutes and a half . " Item the seveuth .
"It is a dirty custom to wear shoes and 8 tockings . " Item the eighth , " I hope none of my readers will think the worse of me for having played at cards on Sunday ! " ( A singular confession for a gentlewoman of the Old School , unless she could £ o back to the time of Charles the Second . )
" Sunday is a day of rejoicing with most nations , and I was asked , " ( abroad that is , ) " why our common people kept it by going to the ale house , where they got drunk , aud went home to beat their wives . I confess I had no satisfactory answer to make to this terrible accusation . In my opinion , they had much better dance or even play with the ' Deil ' s beuks , * as the Scotch Presbyterians called them . "—Vol . II . p . 140 . The accusation is unanswerable , sls it
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Critical Notices . —Miscellaneous . 407
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 407, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/47/
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